
Book. 



COn-KICHT DEPOSIT. 



FIGHTING FRANCE 



FIGHTING FRANCE 



BY 

STEPHANE LAUZANNE 

UEXITEXAST IS TH£ TBENCH ARHT, CHEVALIER OP THE LEGIOK OV HONOB 

EDITOR IN CHIEF OF THE "MATIN," 

UEMBEB OP TBB FRENCH IflBBION TO THE VSITED STATES 

' WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

JAMES M. BECK, LL.D. 

LATE ABBieiANT ATTOBNET-GENERAL OF THE VVITED STATES 




TRANSLATED BY 
JOHN L. B. WILLIAMS, A.M. 

»<»tt£TIME PELIiOW OF PRINCETON rrNXVEBSITT 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK LONDON 

1918 



Cli'^^ * /'^^ ^^^ 



.y ^^, 



COPTBIOHT. 1918. BT 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



©CI.A49080J) 

Printed in the United States of America 

JUL 2S 1918 



) 

3 TO 

MY CHIEFS 

MY COMRADES 

MY MEN 

WHO ARE FIGHTING FOR THE GREAT CAUSE 
OF LIBERTY AND CIVILIZATION 

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 



FOREWORD 

To be Editor-in-Chief of one of tKe greatest 
newspapers in the world at twenty-seven years of 
age is a distinction, which has been enjoyed by 
few other men, if any, in the whole history of 
journalism. There may have been exceptional 
instances, where young men by virtue of proprie- 
tary and inherited rights, have nominally, or even 
actually, succeeded to the editorial control of a 
great metropolitan newspaper. But in the case 
of M. Stephane Lauzanne, his assumption of duty 
in 1901 as Editor-in-Chief of the Paris Matin 
was wholly the result of exceptional achievement 
in journalism. Merit and ability, and not merely 
friendly influences, gave him this position of 
unique power, for the Matin has a circulation 
in France of nearly two million copies a day, and 
its Editor-in-Chief thereby exerts a power which 
it would be difficult to over-estimate. 

vii 



FOREWORD 

M. Lauzanne was born in 1874 and is a gradu- 
ate of the Faculty of Law of Paris. Believing 
that journalism opened to him a wider avenue of 
usefulness than the legal profession, he preferred 
— as the event showed most wisely — to follow a 
journalistic career. In this choice he may have 
been guided by the fact that he was the nephew 
of the most famous foreign correspondent in the 
history of journalism. I refer to M. de Blowitz, 
who was for many years the Paris correspondent 
of the London TimeSy and as such a very notable 
representative of the Fourth Estate. No one ever 
more fully illustrated the truth of the words 
which Thackeray, in Pendennis, puts into the 
mouth of his George Warrington, when he and 
Arthur Pendennis stand in Fleet Street and hear 
the rumble of the engines in the press-room. He 
likened the foreign correspondents of these news- 
papers to the ambassadors of a great State; and 
no one more fully justifies the analogy than M. 
de Blowitz, for it is profitable to recall that when 
in 1875 the military party of Germany secretly 
planned to strike down France, when the stricken 

viii 



FOREWORD 

gladiator was slowly but courageously struggling 
to its feet, it was de Blowitz, who in an article in 
the London Times let the light of day into the 
brutal and iniquitous scheme, and by mere pub- 
licity defeated for the time being this conspiracy 
against the honor of France and the peace of 
the world. Unfortunately the coup of the Prus- 
sian military clique was only postponed. Our 
generation was destined to sustain the unprec- 
edented horrors of a base attempt to destroy 
France, that very glorious asset of all civiliza- 
tion. 

De Blowitz took great interest in his brilliant 
nephew and at his suggestion Lauzanne became the 
London correspondent of the Matin in 1898, when 
he was only twenty-four years of age. This 
brought him into direct communication with the 
London Times which then as now exchanged cable 
news with the Matin, and it was the duty of the 
young journalist to take the cable news of the 
"Thunderer" and transmit such portions as 
would particularly interest France to the Matin^ 
with such special comment as suggested itself. 

ix 



FOREWORD 

How well he did tills work, requiring as it did the 
most accurate judgment and the nicest discrimi- 
nation, was shown when he was made Editor-in- 
Chief of the Matin in 1901. 

His tenure of office was destined to be short 
for, when the world war broke out, M. Lauzanne, 
as a First Lieutenant of the French Army, joined 
the colors in the first days of mobilization and 
surrendered the pen for the sword. His career 
as editor had been long enough, however, for him 
to impress upon the minds of the French public 
the imminency of the Prussian Peril. As to this 
he had no illusions and his powerful editorials 
had done much to combat the spirit of pacificism, 
which at that time was weakening the prepara- 
tions of France for the inevitable conflict. 

The obligation of universal service required him 
to exchange his position of great power and 
usefulness for a lesser position, but this spirit 
of common service in the ranks means much for 
France or for any nation. The democracy of 
the French Army could not be questioned, when 
the powerful Editor of the Matin became merely 

X 



FOREWORD 

a lieutenant in the Territorial Infantry. As such, 
he served in the hattle of the Mame and later be- 
fore Verdun, and thus could saj of the two most 
heroic chapters in French history, as ^neas said 
of the Siege of Troy, "Much of which I saw, and 
part of which I was." 

Having fulfilled the obligation of universal 
service in the ranks, it is not strange that in 1916 
he was recalled to serve the French Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs. For a time he rendered great 
service in Switzerland, where from the beginning 
of the war an acute but ever-lessening controversy 
has raged between the pro-German and the pro- 
Ally interests. 

He was then chosen for a much more important 
mission. In October, 1916, he came to the United 
States as head of the "Official Bureau of French 
Information," and here he has remained until the 
present hour. As such, he has been an unofficial 
ambassador of France. His position has been not 
unlike that of Franklin at Passy in the period 
that preceded the formal recognition by France 
of the United States and the Treaty of Alliance 

xi 



FOREWORD 

of 1778. As with Franklin, his weapon has been the 
pen and the printing press, and the unfailing tact 
with which he has carried on his mission is not 
unworthy of comparison with that of Franklin. 
No one who has been privileged to meet and know 
M. Lauzanne can fail to be impressed with his 
fine urbanity, his savoir faire and his perfect tact. 
Without any attempt at propaganda, he has 
greatly impressed American public opinion by 
his contributions to our press and his many public 
addresses. In none of them has he ever made 
a false step or uttered a tactless note. His words 
have always been those of a sane moderation 
and the influence that he has wielded has been that 
of truth. Apart from the vigor and calm 
persuasiveness of his utterances, his winning 
personality has made a deep impression upon all 
Americans who have been privileged to come in 
contact with him. The highest praise that can be 
accorded to him is that he has been a true repre- 
sentative of his own noble, generous and chivalrous 
nation. Its sweetness and power have been exem- 
plified by his charming personality. 

xii 



FOREWORD 

Although he has taken a forceful part in pos- 
sibly the greatest intellectual controversy that has 
ever raged among men, he has from first to last 
been the gentleman and it has been his quiet dig- 
nity and gentleness that has added force to all that 
he has written and uttered, especially at the time 
when America was the greatest neutral forum of 
public opinion. 

If "good wine needs no bush and a good play 
needs no epilogue," then a good book needs no 
prologue. Therefore I shall not refer to the 
simplicity and charm, with which M. Lauzanne 
has told the story with which this book deals. 
The reader will judge that for himself; and unless 
the writer of this foreword is much mistaken, that 
judgment will be wholly favorable. There have 
been many war books — a very deluge of literature 
in which thinking men have been hopelessly sub- 
merged — but most books of wartime reminis- 
cences do not ring true. There is too obvious an 
attempt to be dramatic and sensational. This 
book avoids this error and its author has con- 
tented himself with telling in a simple and con- 

xiii 



FOREWORD 

vincing manner something of the part which he 
was called upon to play. 

I venture to predict that all good Americans 
who read this book will become the friends, 
through the printed pages, of this gifted and 
brilliant writer, and if it were possible for such 
Americans to increase their love and admiration 
for France, then this book would deepen the pro- 
found regard in which America holds its ancient 

ally. 

James M. Beck. 



XIV 



CONTENTS 



PAQB 



Why France Is Fighting 

The declaration of war and the French mobili- 
zation — The invasion and the tragic days 
of Paris in August and September, 19 1*: 
personal reminiscences — The premeditated 
cruelties of Germany: new documents — 
The German organized spying system in 
France ....... 1 

II 

How France Is Fighting 

France fighting with her men, her women and 
her children — The men show that they 
know how to suffer: episodes of the Marne 
and of Verdun — The women encourage the 
men to fight and to sufi^er: some illustra- 
tions — Sacred Union of all Frenchmen 
against the enemy — all, without any dis- 
tinction of class or religion, die smiling — 
Letters of soldiers — The organization in 
the rear: the work in the factories . . 51 

XV 



CONTENTS 

III 

France Suffering But Not Bled White 



PAGB 



Despite her sufferings, France is able to pay 20 
billions of dollars, for the war, in three 
years — French commerce and French work 
during the war — France is helping her 
allies from a military standpoint and 
financially — The saving of Serbia . . 94 

IV 

The War Aims of France 

Restitution: Alsace-Lorraine — Restoration: 
The devastated and looted territories. 
Guarantees: The Society of Nations . 138 



APPENDICES 

Appendix I. — How Germans Forced War on 

France . . . . . . .179 

Appendix II. — How Germans Treat an Am- 
bassador ....... 183 

Appendix III. — How Germans Are Waging 

War 196 

Appendix IV. — How Germans Occupy the 

Territory of an Enemy . . . . 200 

Appendix V. — How Germans Treat Alsace- 
Lorraine 206 

Appendix VI. — How Germans Understand 

Future Peace ...... 229 

xvi 



FIGHTING FRANCE 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

HAD you been in Paris late in the after- 
noon of Monday, August third, nine- 
teen fourteen, you might have seen a 
slight man, whose reddish face was adorned with 
a thick white mustache, walk out of the German 
Embassy, which was situated on the Rue de Lille 
near the Boulevard St. Germain. Along the bou- 
levard and across the Pont de la Concorde he 
walked in a manner calculated to attract atten- 
tion. He approached the animated and peevish 
groups of citizens that had formed a little before 
for the purpose of discussing the imminent war 
as if he wanted them to notice him. You would 

1 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

have said that he was trying to be recognized and 
to take part in the discussions. 

But no one paid any attention to him. 

Finally he came to the Quai d'Orsay, opened 
the Gate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and 
said to the attendant who hastened to open the 
door for him : 

"Announce the German Ambassador to the 
Prime Minister." 

He was Baron de Schoen, Ambassador Extra- 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of his Ger- 
manic Majesty, William the Second. For two days 
he had wandered through the most crowded streets 
and avenues in Paris, hoping for some injury, 
some insult, some overt act which would have per- 
mitted him to say that Germany in his person had 
been provoked, insulted by France. But there 
had been no violence, the insult had not been of- 
fered, the overt act had not occurred. Then, tired 
of this method, de Schoen took the initiative and 
presented a declaration of war from his govern- 
ment. 

9, 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

The declaration, as history will record, was 
expressed in these terms : 

The German administrative and military au- 
thorities have established a certain number of 
flagrantly hostile acts committed on German ter- 
ritory by French military aviators. Several of 
these have openly violated the neutrality of Bel- 
gium by flying over the territory of that country ; 
one has attempted to destroy buildings near 
Wesel ; others have been seen in the district of the 
Eifel, one has thrown bombs on the railway near 
Carlsruhe and Nuremberg. 

I am instructed and I have the honor to inform 
your Excellency, that in the presence of these 
acts of aggression the German Empire considers 
itself in a state of war with France in consequence 
of the acts of the latter Power. 

At the same time I have the honor to bring to 
the knowledge of your Excellency that the German 
authorities will detain French mercantile vessels 
in German ports, but they will release them if, 
within forty-eight hours, they are assured of com- 
plete reciprocity. 

My diplomatic mission having thus come to an 
end, it only remains for me to request your Ex- 
cellency to be good enough to furnish me with 
my passports, and to take the steps you consider 

3 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

suitable to assure my return to Germany, with the 
staff of the Embassy, as well as with the staff of 
the Bavarian Legation and of the French Consul- 
ate General in Paris. 

Be good enough, M. le President, to receive the 
assurances of my deepest respect, 

(Signed) de Schoen. 

Immediately M. Rene Viviani, the French Pre- 
mier and Minister of Foreign Affairs, protested 
against the statements of this extraordinary dec- 
laration. No French aviator had flown over Bel- 
gium; no French aviator had come near Wesel; 
no French aviator had flown in the direction of 
Eif el ; nor had hurled bombs on the railroad near 
Carlsruhe or Nuremberg. And less than two 
years later a German, Dr. Schwalbe, the Burgo- 
master of Nuremberg, confirmed M. Viviani's in- 
dignant denial of the German accusations: 

"It is false," wrote Dr. Schwalbe in the 
Deutsche Medizinisclie Wochenschrift, "that 
French aviators dropped bombs on the railway 
at Nuremberg. The general of the third Bavarian 
army corps, which was stationed in the vicinity, 

4 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

assured me that he knew nothing of the attempt 
except from the newspapers. . . ." 

But a blow had just been struck that announced 
the rising of the curtain on the most frightful 
tragedy the universe has ever known. This an- 
nouncement was contained in the brief, plain 
words of the declaration of war. 

De Schoen left the Ministry of Foreign Af- 
fairs, where he had been courteously received for 
many years, and made his way out. He was es- 
corted by M. Philippe Berthelot, who was at the 
time directeur politique at the Quai d'Orsay. As 
he was going out of the door, de Schoen pointed 
to the city, which, with its trees, its houses, and 
its monuments, could be seen clearly on the other 
side of the Seine. 

"Poor Paris," he exclaimed, "what will happen 
to her.?" 

At the same time he offered his hand to M. 
Berthelot, but the latter contented himself with a 
silent bow, as if he had neither seen the proffered 
hand nor heard the question. 

It was a quarter before seven o'clock in the 

5 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

evening. From that time on France has been at 
war with Germany, 

• •••••• 

Mobilization had commenced the previous eve- 
ning. To be exact, it was on Sunday, August 
third, at midnight. 

How many times the French people had thought 
of that mobilization during the last twenty years, 
in proportion as Germany grew more aggressive, 
more brutal and more insulting! Personally I 
had often looked at the little red ticket fastened 
to my military card, on which were written these 
brief words: 

In time of mobilization. Lieutenant Lauzanne 
(Stephane) will report on the second day of 
mobilization to the railroad station nearest his 
home and there entrain immediately for Alen9on. 

And each time I looked at the little red card, 
I felt a bit anxious. . . . Mobilization ! The rail- 
road station! The first train! What a mob of 
people, what an overturning of everything, what 
a lot of disorder there would be ! Well, there had 

6 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

been neither disorder nor disturbance nor a mob, 
for everything had taken place in a manner that 
was marvelously simple and calm. 

Monday, August third, at sunrise I had gone 
to the Gare des Invalides. There was no mob, 
there was no crowd. Some policemen were walk- 
ing in solitary state along the sidewalk, which was 
deserted. The station master, to whom I pre- 
sented my card, told me, in the most extraordi- 
narily calm voice in the world, as if he had been 
doing the same thing every morning: 

"Track number 5. Your train leaves at 6.27." 
And the train left at 6.27, like any good little 
train that is on time. It had left quietly ; it was 
almost empty. It had followed the Seine, and I 
had seen Paris lighted up by the peaceable morn- 
ing glow, Paris which was still asleep. And I had 
rubbed my eyes, asking myself if I wasn't dream- 
ing, if I wasn't asleep. Were we really at war? 
My eyes were seeing nothing of it, but my memory 
kept recalling the fact. It recalled the unforget- 
able scenes of those last days — that scene espe- 
cially, at four o'clock in the evening on the first 

7 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

of August, when the crowd along the boulevard 
had suddenly seen the mobilization orders posted 
in the window of a newspaper office. A shout burst 
forth, a shout I shall hear until my last moment, 
which made me tremble from the crown of my 
head to the soles of my feet. It was a shout that 
seemed to come from the very bowels of the earth, 
the shout of a people who, for years, had waited 
for that moment. 

Then the "Marseillaise" ! Then a short, imper- 
ious demand: 

"The flags ! We want the flags T' 

And flags burst forth from all quarters of Paris, 
decorated in the twinkling of an eye as if it were a 
fete day. Yes, all that had really happened. All 
that had taken place. We were really at war. 

Little by little the train filled up. It stopped 
at every station, and at every station men got 
aboard. They came in gayly and confidently, bid- 
ding farewell to the women who had accompanied 
them and wfio stayed behind the gate to do their 
weeping. Everybody was mixed in together in 
the compartments without any distinctions of 

8 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

rank, station, class or anytliing else. At Argen- 
tan I saw some rough Norman farmers enter the 
coaches, talking with the same good natured calm- 
ness as if they were going away on a business trip. 
One expression was repeated again and again: 

"If we've got to go, we've got to go." 

One farmer said: 

"They are looking after our good. I shall fight 
until I fall." 

The spirit of the whole French people spoke 
from these mouths. You felt the firm purpose of 
the nation come out of the very earth. 

The country side presented an unwonted ap- 
pearance. I remember vividly the view the broad 
plains of Beauce offered. They looked as if they 
were dead or fallen into a lethargy. Their life 
had come to an abrupt end on Saturday, the first 
of August, at four o'clock in the afternoon. We 
saw mounds of grain that had been cut and was 
still scattered on the ground, with the scythe glis- 
tening nearby. We saw pitchforks resting along- 
side the hay they had just finished tossing. We 
saw sheaves lying on the ground with no one to 

9 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

take them awaj. The very villages were deserted ; 
not a human being appeared in them. You would 
have said that this train that was passing through 
in the wake of hundreds of other trains had blot- 
ted out all the inhabitants of the region. 

We detrained at Alen9on, arriving there about 
mid-day. Alen9on is a tiny Norman village that 
is habitually calm and peaceful, but on that day 
it was crowded with people. An enormous wave, 
the wave of the men who were mobilizing, rushed 
through the main street of the little town in the 
direction of the two barracks. I went with the 
current. My captain, whom I found in the middle 
of a part of the barracks, had not even had time 
to put on his uniform. He explained the situation 
to me with military brevity: 

"It's very simple. . . . It's now three o'clock 
in the afternoon. The day after tomorrow, at 
six ©'clock in the morning, we entrain for Paris. 
We have one day to clothe, equip and arm our 
company." 

It is no small matter to clothe, equip and arm 

10 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

two hundred and fifty men in twenty-four hours. 
You have to find in the enormous pile, which is 
in a comer of a shed, two hundred and fifty coats, 
pairs of trousers and hats which will fit two hun- 
dred and fifty entirely separate and distinct 
chests, legs and heads. You have to find ^\e 
hundred pairs of shoes for two hundred and fifty 
pairs of feet. You have to arrange the men in 
rank according to their heights, form the sec- 
tions and the squads. You have to have soup pre- 
pared and transport provisions. You have to go 
and get rifles and cartridges. You have to get 
funds advanced for the company accounts from 
the very beginning of the campaign. You have 
to get your duties organized, make up accounts 
and prepare statements. You have to breathe 
the breath of life into the little machine which is 
going to take its place in the big machine. 

And there was not a person there to help us to 
do this — not a line officer, not a second lieutenant. 
The captain had to act on his own, to think on 
his own, to decide everything on his own. He had 

11 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

to do all by himself the work that yesterday twen- 
ty-five department store heads, twenty-five shoe 
makers and twenty-five certified public account- 
ants would have had a hard time doing. 

He did it ! Every captain in the French Army 
did it. And the next morning at six o'clock our 
little macliine was ready to go and take its place 
in the operations of the big machine. The follow- 
ing day, at six o'clock, we entrained again; but 
no longer was it the confused and disorganized 
crowd that it had been the evening before. It was 
a company with arms and leaders; a company 
which had already made the acquaintance of dis- 
cipline. That was proved by the silence reigning 
everywhere. At the moment of departure the 
Colonel had commanded: 

"Silence!" 

There was not a sound. The long train, crowd- 
ed with soldiers, was a silent train which passed 
through the open country, the towns and the vil- 
lages all the way to Paris without a sound except 
the puffing of the engine. In the evening, silent 
always, we detrained at Paris and marched to a 

12 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

barracks situated to the north of the capital. We 
were to stay there a month. 

The story of Paris during the month of August, 
1914, is an extraordinary one that would de- 
serve an entire volume to itself. That feverish city 
has never lived through hours that were more 
calm and peaceful. During the first two weeks 
Paris seemed to be in a sweet, peaceful dream, in 
which the citizens listened eagerly for sounds of 
victory coming from the far distant horizon. On 
the twenty-fifth of August Paris, which had heard 
only vague echoes of the Battle of Charleroi, 
awakened with a jolt when it read the famous 
communique beginning with the words: **Z>^ la 
Somme aux Vosges. . . ." 

So the enemy was already at the Somme, a few 
days' march from the capital! But the awaken- 
ing was as free from disturbance as the dream 
had been. Paris felt absolute confidence in the 
army, in JofFre; and the Parisian reasoning was 
expressed in one phrase, "The army has retreated, 
but it is neither destroyed nor beaten; as long 

13 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

as the army is there, Paris has nothing ta 
fear. . . ." And when Sunday the thirteenth of 
August came. Paris was as calm and confident as 
it was on the first day of the war. 

I shall remember the thirtieth of August for a 
long time. 

They had posted on all the walls two notices. 
One of them was large, the other small. The large 
one was a proclamation of the Government an- 
nouncing the departure of its officials for Bor- 
deaux: 

Frenchmen ! 

For several week our troops and the enemy's 
army have been engaged in a series of bloody bat- 
tles. The bravery of our soldiers has gained 
them marked advantages at several points. But 
in the north the pressure of the German forces 
has compelled us to withdraw. 

This retirement imposes a regrettably necessary 
decision on the President of the Republic and the 
Government. To protect national safety the gov- 
ernment officials have to leave Paris at once. 

Under the command of an eminent leader, a 
French army, full of bravery and resource, will 
defend the capital and its people against the in- 

14 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

vader. But at the same time war will be carried 
on over the rest of the territory. 

The small notice was from General Gallieni, the 
new Governor of Paris. It had, in its brevity, the 
beauty of an ancient inscription: 

"I have been ordered to defend Paris. I shall 
obey this command until the end." 

That same Sunday, the thirtieth of August, 
was the first day the Taubes came over Paris. By 
chance I was guarding one of the city's gates. I 
saw the airplane coming from a distance. I had 
not the least doubt about it for it had the silhou- 
ette of a bird of prey that rendered the German 
planes so easily recognizable at that time. For 
that matter, no one was deceived by it, and from 
all the batteries, forts and other positions a vio- 
lent fusillade greeted it. There was firing from the 
streets, windows, courts and roofs. I followed it 
through my field glass, and for a moment I 
thought it had been hit, for it paused in its flight. 
But this was an optical illusion. . . . The plane 

15 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

simply flew higher, having without doubt heard 
the sound of the fusillade and the bullets having 
perhaps whistled too close to the pilot's ears. 
When he was almost over my post, a light white 
cloud appeared under its wings and, in the ten 
ensuing seconds, there followed a terrible series of 
sounds, for a bomb had just fallen and exploded 
very near at hand. But so entrancing was it to 
observe the flight of this pirate who, in spite of 
everything, continued in his audacious course, that 
I gazed at the heavens, trying to determine whether 
or not I saw once more the little white cloud, the 
precursor of the machine of death. 

And everyone who was near me — ^workmen, 
passers-by, women, children — stayed there too, 
their feet firmly on the ground, their glances- Ir 
in the limitless sky. No one ran away; no Oi. . 
hid; no one sought refuge behind a door or in a 
cellar. It's a characteristic of airplane bombs 
that they frighten no one, even when they kill. 
The machine you see does not frighten you; only 
the machine you can't see upsets your nerves. 

However that may be, the curiosity of Paris 

16 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

was insatiable. Even in the tragic hours we were 
living through at that time, this curiosity re- 
mained as eager, ardent and amused as ever. Every 
afternoon, at the stroke of four, crowds collected 
in the squares and avenues. The motive was to 
see the Taubes ! Since one Taube had flown over 
the city, no one doubted that a second one would 
come the next day. A girl's boarding school ob- 
tained a free afternoon to enjoy the spectacle. The 
midinettes were allowed to leave their work. At 
Montmartre, where the steps of the Butte gave a 
better chance of scanning the horizon, places were 
in great demand. 

There was a crowd along the fortifications to 
see the works for the defense on which, by General 
,Gallieni's order, men were working. Thousands 
ffOt spectators of both sexes, but especially of 
women, were examining the bases that were being 
put in for the guns, the openings they were making 
to serve as loopholes, the joists they were putting 
across the gates, and the paving stones with wliich 
the entrances were being barricaded. This crowd 
did not want to believe in the proximity of the 

17 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

enemy. Or, if it believed it, it didn't want to admit 
that there was danger. Or, if it admitted that there 
was danger, it wanted to share in it. Above every- 
thing it wanted to see ; it wanted to see ! 

The last night in August I had a hard time 
freeing the approaches of the gate I was guard- 
ing. There were only women, but there were thou- 
sands of them and neither prayer nor argument 
could persuade them to make up their minds to go 
home. 

"Nothing wiU happen," I told them. **Look 
here now, be reasonable and go home to bed." 

"But we want to see. . , ." 

"What do you want to see.'^" 

"Want to see what kind of a reception the 
Prussians will get if they come." 

Aside from this the mob was remarkably easy 
to get on with. A strict order had forbidden that 
anyone be permitted to enter or leave Paris until 
sunrise. As a result the capital found itself cut 
off from the suburbs, and lots of little working 
girls, who came In for the day from Clichy or 
I.evallois-Perret, couldn't get back to their homes 

18 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

in the evening. They had to camp out under the 
stars. 

"It's very amusing," they said, "here we are 
just like soldiers.'* 

I even heard one of them say: 
"What a pity there isn't always war." 
That same night, about eleven o'clock, a heavy 
sound was heard coming from the direction of the 
city. Some urchins shouted: 

"It's the soldiers. It's the soldiers.'* 
An entire Algerian division was, as a matter of 
fact, detraining and hurrying to fight before 
Paris. Behind it followed a long line of taxi-cabs, 
the famous line of taxi-cabs requisitioned by Gen- 
eral Gallieni to carry munitions to the battle field 
of the Ourcq. They made an incomparable spec- 
tacle, that magnificent summer night, in the 
bright moonlight, the long column of Algerian 
cavalry, with their shining burnouses, on fiery lit- 
tle horses. Applause burst forth from the mob 
and reached the soldiers. The women threw 
kisses at them, but they overwhelmed my men and 
me with reproaches: 

19 



FIGHTING FRANCE 



((( 



'See," they shrieked at us, "if we haS minded 
you and gone home, we wouldn't have seen them." 



Paris, which didn't know about the Battle of 
Charleroi, knew about the Battle of the Mame. 
Paris knew about the Battle of the Mame not only 
on account of the troops who marched through 
its streets, but because it heard the big guns roar 
for three days, without stopping, towards the 
north. 

What has not already been written and said 
about the Battle of the Mame, a conflict which 
will remain legendary in history? What will not 
be said and written on that subject in the future i* 
. . . Some writers wiU see in it a miracle, others 
a strategic action engineered by a genius, others 
a chance stroke of destiny. The truth of the 
matter is more simple and appealing than any 
of these explanations and, although the whole 
truth is not yet known about the fight at the 
Mame, enough is known to make clear the two or 
three chief reasons why \actory came to France 

20 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

and defeat to Germany, safety to civilization and 
a repulse to barbarism. 

To be sure there was a great deal of strategy 
in it; and the stroke that was conceived in the 
master brain of Joffre and carried out by Gen- 
erals Gallieni and Maunoury — a stroke which con- 
sisted in forming a new army on the extreme right 
of the German hordes to come and hurl itself 
sharply against these hordes — was a brave and 
bold maneuver which prepared the way for vic- 
tory. 

But this maneuver would not in itself have suf- 
ficed to win the victory if Maunoury had not at- 
tacked with an irresistible elan on the extreme 
left, upsetting the German plan of battle; if 
Franchet d'Esperey had not supported Maunou- 
ry's attack vigorously and succeeded in breaking 
the German left ; if, especially, Foch, at the center, 
had not performed unheard of miracles in break- 
ing down the enemy's resistance and not allowing 
his own lines to be broken ; if, farther on, de 
Langle de Gary and Sarrail had not held off the 
Princes of Bavaria and Prussia before Vitry; if, 

21 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

on the right, de Castelnau had not held until the 
end the Grand Couronne at Nancj. The first truth 
is that they were all — Joffre, Gallieni, Maunoury, 
Franchet d'Esperey, Foch, de Langle de Cary, 
Sarrail, Castelnau, Dubail, to mention them in 
the order of the battle line from left to right — 
absolutely incomparable. As an eye-witness said, 
"each man was on his ©wn," each man gave the 
very best there was in his brain, his skill, his mind, 
his soul, his heart. The battle would have been 
lost if a single one of them had failed once during 
the entire seven days it raged. Opposed to the 
Huns was a chain forged of the finest steel, every 
link in which met the test for equal and unparal- 
leled resistance. Therein lay the miracle of the 
Mame ! 

And the second great truth is that behind these 
generals, who all showed themselves without equal, 
were armies which, without exception, had kept 
intact their fighting spirit, that is, their faith in 
themselves, in their leaders, in the destiny of their 
country, in the beauty of the cause for which they 
fought. . . . Enough can never be said of the ele- 

22 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

mental importance that lies in the morale of the 
fighting men on the battle field. It is lamentable 
to hear far distant strategists reduce the con- 
flict of two peoples to a problem in tactics or a 
list of ordnance statistics. It is enough to make 
angels weep when spectators, at a safe distance, 
speak of succoring a beaten people by sending 
them food stuffs, shells and men. Above all, be- 
yond all, is that immaterial, incalculable, inval- 
uable force which is the sole true mistress of war- 
fare — moral force — fighting spirit ! 

The Frenchmen in the Battle of the Marne kept 
their fighting spirit intact. I remember asking 
many of the officers attached to the forces which, 
after the Battle of Charleroi, retreated under a 
broiling sun, along roads burning with heat, 
through a suffocating dust, how they felt at this 
disheartening time. All of them answered, "We did 
not know where we were going or what we were 
doing, but we did know one thing — that we would 
beat them!" One writer, Pierre Laserre, de- 
scribed this retreat in the words, "Their bodies 
were retreating, but not their souls !" This is 

23 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

proven by the arrival on the fifth of September of 
JofFre*s immortal order, "The hour has come to 
hold our positions at any cost, and to fight rather 
than retreat. . . . No longer must we look at 
the enemy over our slioulders ; the time has come 
to employ all our efforts in attacking and defeat- 
ing him." . , . That evening, when they heard 
their leader's appeal, the hearts of the men 
bounded in response. The next morning, at dawn, 
their bodies leaped up and hurled themselves on 
the enemy. Therein lay the miracle of the Mame ! 
Finally, at the very hour when the fighting 
spirit of the French Army had never been higher, 
the fighting spirit of the German Army had never 
been lower. It was low because the physical 
strength of the Germans was low, worn out, and 
broken by the shameful orgies, the disgraceful 
drinking which had reduced these men to the level 
of swine. It was low because the German fighting 
men had been led to believe that they would have 
to fight no longer, that the great effort was ended, 
that there was no French Army to put a stop 
to their pillaging and burning. "Tomorrow we 

OA, 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

enter Paris, we are going to the Moulin Rouge," 
von Kluck's soldiers said in their jargon to the 
inhabitants of Compiegne. "Tomorrow we will 
burn Bar-le-Duc, Poincare's home town," the 
Crown Prince's soldiers said. What sort of re- 
sistance could such men oppose to Joffre's sol- 
diers? Their spirit, granting that they had ever 
had any, was broken beforehand. And that is 
another thing that will explain the outcome of the 
Battle of the Marne. 

What Paris knew very quickly, very com- 
pletely and very surely were the details of fright- 
ful looting and of the first atrocities perpetrated 
by the Germans, who demonstrated a premeditated 
intention to destroy, defile and wipe out every- 
thing in their path. And Paris was doubtless the 
first city in France to comprehend the significance 
of this war^ which is a war of civilization against 
barbarism, a sacred war in which the forces of 
humanity raise a rampart of human breasts 
against the violent reappearance of primitive 
savagery. 

25 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

Those of us who had a hand in some part of the 
Battle of the Mame were not slow to comprehend 
who the enemy was we were fighting and why we 
had to fight him to the death. 

Among the many things that will be always en- 
graved on the tablets of my memory, the deepest 
is of the time when I was on guard at the field 
of battle on the Ourcq, north of Meaux, on the 
extremity of the battle line of the Mame. Field 
of battle I have just written. No, it was not a 
field of battle but a field of carnage. I have for- 
gotten the corpses I met in the roads or in the 
fields with their grinning faces and their distorted 
attitudes. But I shall never forget the ruin that 
was everywhere, the abominable manner in which 
the fields had been laid waste, the sacrilegious pil- 
lage of homes. That bore the trade mark of Ger- 
man "Kultur." That trade mark will be enough 
to dishonor a nation for centuries. 

I see again those humble villages situated aloiTg 
the road to Meaux, Penchard, Marcilly, Chambry, 
Etrepilly, where a barbarian horde had passed. 
Since there were no inhabitants remaining — men 

26 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

whose throats could be cut, women who could be 
violated, or babies to shoot down — the horde had 
vented its rage on the furniture and the poor little 
familiar objects in which each one of us puts a bit 
of his soul. 

I arrived in Etrepilly at the same time as a de- 
tachment of Zouaves. While they piously buried 
their companions who had fallen in forcing their 
way into the village, I wandered alone among the 
ruins. There had been a hundred houses there, 
and not a single one was untouched. Some had 
been hit by shells, and the shell which burst in the 
interior of the house had destroyed everything. 
That, of course, was war, and there was nothing 
to say about it. 

But other houses, which had been spared by 
shell fire, had not been spared by the Kaiser's 
soldiery. The Barbarians had placed their claws 
on them. Everything had been taken out of the 
houses and scattered to the four winds of heaven. 
Here is a portrait that has been wrenched from its 
frame and trampled on. A baby's bathtub has 
been carried into the garden, and the soldiers have 

rt 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

deposited their excrement in it. There are chairs 
that have been smashed by the kicks of heavy boots 
and wardrobes that have been disemboweled. Here 
is a fine old mahogany table that has been carried 
into the fields for five hundred meters and then 
broken in two. An old red damask armchair, 
with wings at the sides, one of those old armchairs 
in which the grandmothers of France sit by the 
fire in the evening has been torn in shreds by knife 
thrusts. Linen is mixed with mud ; the white veil 
some girl wore at her first conmiunion is defiled 
with excrement. . . . An old man is wandering 
among the ruins. He has just come back to the 
devastated village. He says to me simply: 

"I saw them in 1870. They came here, but they 
didn't do this. They are savages." 

A woman was there, too. She had come an hour 
or so ago with the old man, and she stood on the 
step of her defiled, despoiled home where the 
curtains hung in tatters at the windows. She 
saw me pass by. She wanted to speak to me, but 
her voice stuck in her throat. There she stood, 

28 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

her arms extended like a great cross. She could 
only sob: 

"Look! Lookr 

And she was like a symbol of the whole wretched 
business. 

The men who do such deeds are the men France 
is fighting. 

Vincy-Manoeuvre was another one of the vil- 
lages. It is situated near the border of the De- 
partment of the Oise. It was still in flames when 
I entered it. On the outskirts of the hamlet there 
used to be a large factory. Only the iron frame- 
work of this factory remained ; the ashes had com- 
menced to smoke, giving forth flames from time 
to time. Here also every house had been destroyed 
and pillaged. Only the church remained standing, 
and on the belfry which was silhouetted against 
the sky, the weather cock seemed to shudder with 
horror. 

Bottles covered the ground everywhere at Vincy- 
Manoeuvre. There were bottles in the streets, 
along the highways, in the fields. They marked 

29 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

the road by which the vanquished hordes had re^ 
treated. I counted almost two hundred in one 
trench, where a German battery had been placed. 
They lay peU-mell, mixed in with unexploded 
shells. Pam'c had apparently swept the gunners 
away. They had not had time to carry off their 
shells, so they had left them behind. But they 
had had time to empty the bottles. Absinthe, 
brandy, rum, champagne, beer, and wine had all 
been consumed, and the labels lay alongside of 
each other. Drunken, bloodthirsty brutes, thiev- 
ing, sickening, nauseous beasts were what had de- 
scended upon France and passed through her 
country. Ruins, ashes and filth were the traces 
left behind by the German mob. 

Some hundreds of yards from the village I no- 
ticed a woman lost in the immense beet fields. Ap- 
parently she was unharmed. I walked in her di- 
rection, thinisting aside with my legs corpses of 
men and horses, scaling the trenches, making a cir- 
cuit around the craters made by shells. Suddenly 
what was my surprise at seeing two German sol- 
diers, accompanied by a farmer, coming along a 

30 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

footpath ! They stopped at six paces, gave me a 
military salute, and pointed to the white brassard 
of the Red Cross they wore on their arms. 

"Where do you come from?" I asked. "What 
are you doing here?" 

"We come from that farm, where we have been 
for two days caring for two of our wounded. We 
didn't see any French soldier or officer. We don't 
know what to do. We want to go to the village 
down there," they pointed out a hamlet two or 
three kilometers off, "where we left a doctor and 
one hundred and fifty-three wounded." 

"Very good," I said, "follow me." 

Obediently the two orderlies marched behind 
me to the village they had pointed out. It was 
situated on the national highway to Soissons. In 
this place were a hundred and fifty or two hundred 
Germans, quartered in four or five houses under the 
guard of a companj^ of Zouaves who had just ar- 
rived a half hour previously. The German major, 
informed of my arrival, stood in front of the main 
building. He wore gold- rimmed spectacles, his 
face was the type the Alsatian Hansi loves to show 

31 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

in his books. He spoke very good French and 
even pretended that he did not want to answer the 
questions I asked him in his own langxiage. 
"Show me your wounded," I ordered. 
He immediately conducted me everywhere, ex- 
plaining the nature of each wound. Some were 
suffering and groaning; others, seeing the uni- 
form of a French officer, tried to raise themselves 
up and salute. 
The German major asked : 

"When they come to evacuate the wounded to 
Meaux or some other place, do you suppose I shall 
be allowed to accompany them and continue my 
treatment.?" 

"I don't know," I replied, "but there is one 
thing you can be sure of. My superiors will act 
in accordance with the demands of humanity. Now 
you follow me." 

I led him outside to the doorstep. I pointed out 
the poor homes of the village, ruined, reduced to 
dust. Everywhere were the dwellings of the en- 
tire region, with their furniture lying in the mud 
and ashes. 

32 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

*a.ook at that," I said to him. "That is what 
your men have done." 

The German officer turned very pale, then very 
red. He answered : 

"It's sad, but it is war." 

**No," I replied, "it isn't war. It's pure barbar- 
ism and it's abominable." 

Some few paces away from us French Zouaves 
were sitting beside some wounded Germans. In 
their own glasses they poured out a little cor- 
dial for their prisoners ; they gave them their last 
cigarettes. One of them had even taken, as if 
he were his brother, the head of a wounded Ger- 
man in his left hand to support it. With his 
right hand, very carefully, he was giving him a 
drink. I pointed that out to the German major, 
saying: 

"There! That is war — at least it's war as we 
understand it." 

This time he made no answer. 

But all the German prisoners repeated what he 
had said to me as a set phrase. On the whole, when 
you have seen ten German prisoners you have 

33 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

seen a thousand; when you have questioned one 
German officer you have questioned fifty. The 
characteristic of the race is that they have abol- 
ished all individuality. You find yourself in an 
amorphous mass, cast in a uniform mold, not in 
the presence of human beings who think their own 
thoughts. 

I often saw trains stop in what is called a gare 
regulatrice, where the prisoners are questioned 
and distributed. These trains bring in prisoners 
and their officers. The commandant of the sta- 
tion, in accordance with his duty, has the officers 
appear before him so that he can question them: 

"Your name? Your rank?" 

The German states his name and rank, offering 
of necessity his identification card. 

"Your regiment?" 

"Such and such a regiment." 

"Your army corps?" 

"Such and such an army corps." 

"Who is the general in command?" 

Like an automaton the officer replies: 

^'Dassageichnicht.'^ ("I can not answer that.") 

34. 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

And you know that it would be an easier matter 
to make the stone beneath jour feet talk than one 
of these prisoners. 

However, the conmiandant frowns slightly, 
glances over his notes, and says coldly : 

**I know who your general is. If you belong 
to such and such an army corps, the general in 
command must be General von Bissing." . . . 

"I have nothing to say." 

As a general thing one of the staff had some- 
thing to say. The interpreter, the convoy officer 
or the station master would get a lot of fun out of 
reciting to the German passages from von His- 
sing's famous and ferocious proclamation ordering 
that no quarter be given and that the troops 
should not encumber themselves with prisoners. 
Then he would ask : 

"What would you say if we were to put such a 
principle into practice?" 

The German often became very pale. He would 
content himself with a shrug of the shoulders — 
the shrug of the brute who knows that he is safe 
among civilized men. 

35 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

The men I questioned were often doctors who 
ranked as majors or held some commission in the 
German medical corps. They were less stiff and 
automaton-like than the officers and sergeants 
of the line service. Their attitude varied in ac- 
cordance with the number of stars they had on 
their epaulette. If their rank were inferior to 
mine, they were exaggeratedly obsequious, hold- 
ing their hands along the crease in the seam of 
their trousers with their fingers close together — 
at strict attention. If their rank were superior to 
mine, they were defiant and insolent. Neverthe- 
less, they showed themselves more communicative 
than their comrades of the line service. Most of 
them spoke French — ^well enough, though not per- 
fectly. All of them had been in Paris, and one 
and all repeated this phrase: 

"We know your beautiful country well. We 
have been in your beautiful capital often. . . ." 

For my part, I invariably spoke to them of the 
atrocities their men had perpetrated in that beau- 
tiful coimtry, or of those they had perpetrated in 
the country of our beautiful neighbor. , . . 

36 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

Rhelms, Ypres, Louvain, Andenne, were the names 
that always returned to my lips. I hoped each time 
that I would get from those men who, in spite of 
everything, were men of science, members of hu- 
manity's most generous profession, if not a word 
of contrition at least a banal word of regret. 
Since they had not ordered the sacrileges or the 
massacres, they need not keep silent. But it was 
all in vain. They also excused, justified and ex- 
plained. ... 

The explanation was simple and stereotyped. 
For the battered Cathedral of Rheims, for the 
total destruction of Clermont, for the systematic 
la3dng-waste of Louvain, for the frightful com- 
pany of old men, women and children who were 
dragged off into captivity, three words were the 
justification — the three words of the German 
major at Vincy: 

''Das ist Kriegr ("It is war.") 

For the blackened ruins of Senlis, for that 
charming city of Louvain, razed to the ground in 
one night as completely as if the scourge of God 
had passed through it ; for Andenne, assassinated 

37 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

in cold blood with not one of its houses being 
granted mercy by the assassins; for Termonde, 
where General Sommerfeld, seated in a chair in 
the midst of the Grande Place, gave the order 
that it be burned and replied to the entreaties 
of the mayor: 

"No. Burn it to the ground!" 
Five other words sufficed to explain everything : 
"Civilians fired on our troops.'* 
Not one village in flames, not one desecrated 
monument, not one organized killing, not one tor- 
tured city that does not fall under the scope of one 
or the other of those justifications, "War is war," 
or "Civilians fired on our troops." 

Doctors, savants, officers, Bavarians, Saxons, 
and Prussians have adopted the double excuse 
with a marvelous unity: they advance it in a 
certain tone of voice. It is firmly embedded in 
what is left of their consciences as firmly as the 
iron cross is riveted on their necks. 

Besides, it was all planned, wished for, arranged 
in advance. German frightfulness formed a part 
of the plan of campaign. It is enough to read the 

S8 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

manual called "Kriegesgebrauch in Landkriege" 
(Military Usage in Landwarfare) to be very much 
edified. Every Grerman officer has had this manual 
in his hands since the days of peace. It comprised 
his rules of warfare. It was a part of his war 
equipment, the same as his field glasses and his 
staff-officer's card. And here is what he reads 
on the very first page : 

War carried on energetically can not be directed 
against the inhabitants and fortified places of the 
hostile state alone; it will endeavor, it ought to 
endeavor to destroy equally all the enemy s intel'- 
lectual and material resources. Humanitarian 
considerations, that is, consideration for the per- 
sons of individuals and for the sake of propriety, 
can have no recognition unless the end and nature 
of the war allow it. 

And, a little farther on, he reads there: 

Profound study of the history of war will make 
the officer guard against exaggerated humanitar- 
ian concessions, will teach him that war can not 
take place without certain harshness, that true 
humamity consists in proceeding without tender' 
Tiess, 

39 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

Farther along in that book, he reads : 

All the methods invented by the technic of mod- 
ern warfare, the most perfected as well as the most 
dangerous, those which hill the greatest rmmber 
at once, are perTmtted. These last are conducive to 
the quickest end of the war; they are, if you con- 
sider matters carefully, the most humane methods. 
. . . Prisoners may be killed in case of necessity 
if there is no other means of guarding them prop- 
erly. . . . The presence of women, children, old 
men, the sick and the wounded in a beseiged city 
can hasten the place's fall ; in consequence it would 
be very foolish of the beseiger to renounce this 
advantage. . . . They will force the inhabitants 
to furnish information concerning their army, mil- 
itary resources and secrets of their country. The 
majority of writers in all nations condemn this 
usage. It will he used no7i€ tlw less — very regret- 
fully — for military reasons. 

Finally, on the volume's last page, is found this 
extraordinary maxim: 

"Any wrong that the war demands, however 
great it may be, is allowed." 

Therefore the horrors which the Germans per- 

40 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

formed from the war's very beginning, which pro- 
voked an expression of great indignation from all 
the civilized world, were not perpetrated in a mo- 
ment of orgy or madness. They have been perpe- 
trated coldly, deliberately, intentionally. 

Besides, not only the officers and the common 
soldiers have been taught to make war in this 
barbarous fashion. It has been taught to the en- 
tire German people. This precept proves the 
case. It emanates not from a soldier but from a 
poet, who is not addressing the military class but 
the civilians, the women, the children, and all Ger- 
many. It is the "Hynm of Hate" by the poet 
Heinrich Vierordt, which, before the war, was re- 
cited in even the German kindergartens: 

Hate, Germany ! Slit the throats of your mil- 
lions of enemies. Raise a monument of their smok- 
ing corpses that will rise to the heavens ! 

Germany, arm yourself with brazen armor and 
pierce with your bayonet the heart of every enemy. 
Take no prisoners ! Strike them dumb. Trans- 
form into deserts the lands that lie near you! 

Hate, Germany ! Victory will come from your 
anger. Shatter their skulls with blows from your 

41 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

ax and the butt of your musket. These brigands 
are timid beasts. . . . They are not men. . . . 
May your fist perform the judgment of God! 

It is useless to say what this spirit has brought 
about. Germany has carried on the war with 
vigor, has armed herself with brazen armor! She 
has transformed neighboring lands into deserts ! 
She has slit throats, laid waste fields, shattered 
skuUs, she has destroyed aU that lay in her path ! 
She has tried to impress the terror she holds salu- 
tary upon the souls of inoffensive old men and 
women and children! 

This is the first of all the reasons why it is nec- 
essary now to fight, and to fight to the death; 
because these men will understand the abominable 
nature of "frightfulness" only when they see that 
"f rightfulness" does not pay ; only when they see 
the uselessness of unchaining horror and of be- 
ginning another war. Let an assassin go at lib- 
erty and he wiU commence his killing all over 
again; send him to the electric chair and he will 
regret his crime. 



42 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

Just as France and Paris were not long in un- 
derstanding what war meant in Grermany^s mind, 
France and Paris were not long in accounting for 
the danger they had passed through on account 
of the German spy system, on account of the for- 
midable web of espionage the German agents had 
woven around all France. 

People felt that this German spy system was 
there, speculated about it and talked about it for 
years and years, but it was only in the first days 
of the war that they really appreciated how dia- 
bolical it was and how far it had penetrated into 
the heart of France. 

What happened at Amiens at the beginning of 
September, 1914, is especially characteristic of 
this. 

Amiens was occupied twice by the enemy. To 
use the expression of a military historian, it 
seemed as if "the French and the Germans were 
playing hide-and-seek around the town." As soon 
as the blue caps of the French appeared over 
the horizon, the yellow pointed helmets of the 
Germans disappeared, rapidly. German occupa- 

43 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

tion meant the same thing it did ever}^where else 
— exactions, brutalities, rape. Immediately after 
he had entered the Prefecture, the German gov- 
ernor levied a war contribution of one million 
francs. He also demanded that the citizens fur- 
nish his troops with wine, cigars, and tobacco ; 
drew up a list of hostages; and arrested all the 
men between the ages of seventeen and twenty 
years. Within twenty-four hours they were led 
away under guard. 

Nothing of all this surprised the brave Picard 
city. Proudly she submitted to her fate. But 
one thing moved her, or rather angered her, and 
that was the surety and speed with which the 
German authorities went directly to all the places 
they should occupy. They did not hesitate an 
instant about the street to follow or the door at 
which to knock. The arrest of the fifteen hun- 
dred young hostages occurred with an unheard-of 
rapidity. It seemed as if an invisible but cxt 
ceedingly clever hand guided each step, regulated 
each movement of the invaders. Who could it be 

44 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

who directed, advised and commanded the Ger- 
mans from behind a veil? 

Doubtless the mystery would never have been 
solved if, during the second occupation, the citi- 
zens had not been warned that the next day they 
would have to keep their shades down and close 
all shutters because His Imperial Highness, Prince 
Eitel Friedrich, the Kaiser's son, would then make 
a formal entry into the capital of Picardy. The 
shutters were closed; automatically the streets 
were emptied. 

Into a deserted city, to the sound of trumpet 
and drum, preceded by a staff gleaming with gold 
braid and mounted on spirited steeds, the German 
army entered in state. All the shades were drawn 
in the city. However, behind some of them drawn 
faces peered forth in sorrow or in anger. In a 
house on the principal street was a lady whose 
husband was at the front. Her father, an aged 
general who had fought bravely in the war of 
1870, was with her. Through the drawn shades 
of her home she was watchincr the hated scene. 

45 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

And her glorious old father, however indignant he 
felt, was watching by her side. 

When the parade was passing by, he made a 
sudden gesture and said : 

"Look at that man on the horse, there, now !" 

The man in question seemed to have a horse that 
pranced a little more than the others. He rolled 
around in his saddle a little more than the others. 
And the two onlookers had no trouble in recogniz- 
ing this aide-de-camp of Prince Eitel's as one of 
the former directors of a language school that 
had had a branch at Amiens ! 

There is a sequel to the story . , . for on the 
afternoon of that unhappy day Madame X and 
ten other society ladies of Amiens at different 
times heard a ring at their doors and saw that 
same individual, in full regalia, booted and 
spurred, enter their drawing rooms. He came to 
call on them, to pay his respects, as if it were the 
most natural thing in the world that he should 
be there in that costume. They all had to re- 
strain the feeling of disgust and anger this spy 
aroused in their breasts. It was for the sake of 

46 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

the safety of their homes, for the lives that were 
dear to them, that they did this. And he, entirely 
unconscious in his vileness, was suave and polite, 
played the man about town, recalled one thing 
or another, mentioned dances and parties. . . . 

So we once more find justification for the fa- 
mous definition of German contained in Schopen- 
hauer's famous phrase: "The German is remark- 
able for the absolute lack of that feeling which the 
Latins call S'erecundia' — sense of shame." 

The essence of this feeling which is found among 
the most savage peoples is entirely lacking in the 
Teutonic race. And once more we find an abomin- 
able ambush placed for French culture, good faith 
and generosity. 

This is not an isolated incident. When the 
whole truth is known, there will be even more sur- 
prised indignation felt than there is at present. 
Inquiries will have to be made. It will be necessary 
to know why the enemy, in certain places, has 
rushed in as if he came out of a trap door. It 
will be necessary to know why, in certain rav- 
aged districts, some houses have been entirely de- 

47 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

stroyed and others carefully spared. It will 
be necessary to know why tennis courts have 
been put in certain places and why certain masses 
of rhododendrons have been planted in certain 
parks. . . . 

For we know that the tennis courts have helped 
the Germans carry out their schemes, and that the 
flower beds have had a place in the machinery of 
war they were developing, which they kept alive 
until they were at our gates. A tennis match 
seems a mere nothing — something very innocent 
in the way of pleasure, far from being war-like. 
And then, one fine day the discovery is made that 
the tennis court has a foundation of reinforced 
concrete twenty centimeters thick, fit to support a 
house six stories high and, consequently, a heavy 
gun! 

A clump of rhododendrons is very lovely, some- 
thing very gracious, charming, most poetic. And 
one day the discovery is made that the clump con- 
ceals a platform set in concrete on which an en- 
tire battery can be aligned. 

All that will have to be investigated. AU that 

48 



WHY FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

will have to be stopped. . . . And it makes an- 
other reason why it is necessary to fight today, to 
fight to the death. For these Germans will under- 
stand the inanity of their Machiavellian schem- 
ing and of their spy system only when they shall 
see these methods fall to pieces, when they shall 
see their system fail absolutely. 

In conclusion we may say that France fights 
for two reasons. The first reason is because on 
the third of August at a quarter before seven 
o'clock war was declared on her; she was forced 
to fight; her territory was invaded, her cities 
burned to the ground; her fields ravaged; her 
citizens massacred. The second reason is because 
she does not want to have to fight in the future; 
she does not wish this horror to be reproduced a 
second time ; she wishes, in the immortal words of 
Washington, "that plague of mankind, war, ban- 
ished off the earth." 

To accomplish this the engine that makes war 
must be destroyed. The engine that makes war 
is "made in Germany." War is the national in- 
dustry of the Germans, it has been developed and 

49 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

made perfect in Germany, it is dear to all Ger- 
man hearts. They are proud of it and have faith 
in its power. The machine must not only be 
stopped ; it must be broken and destroyed, thrown 
out as scrap iron to prevent the pieces from being 
reassembled, readjusted and put in running order 
once again. 

That is why France is fighting, why the whole 
world ought to fight to the end, to death or until 
victory crowns its efforts. 



II 

HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

TWO words, courage and tenacity, will serve 
the future historian in his description of 
how France fought, when the time shall 
have come for telling the entire story of the world 
war. 

No one has ever doubted French courage 
throughout all the centuries of her tormented his- 
tory; but skeptical remarks have been made in 
times past of the tenacity of the French people. 
Ten epigrams do not describe this war; nor do 
three. But one alone serves this purpose — know 
how to endure. No more thoughtful words have 
ever been spoken than those of the Japanese, 
Marshall Nogi : "Victory is won by the nation that 
can suffer a quarter of an hour longer than its 
opponent." 

51 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

During the four years of war, France has 
proven that she knew how to suffer and was able 
to suffer a quarter of an hour longer than her 
enemies. 

They knew how to suffer, those soldiers of 
General Maunoury's army in the Battle of the 
Marne. And they turned the tide of battle in 
favor of French arms. They marched, fought 
and died for five days and five nights, in the pass- 
ing of which some battalions marched forty-two 
kilometers and did not sleep for more than two 
hours at a time. The mobility of the fighting 
units was such that the commissary department 
was absolutely unable to supply them with rations. 
For three days many of them had no bread, no 
meat, nothing at all! They subsisted on crusts 
they had with them, or on the food they were able, 
by the fortunes of battle, to pick up in the vil- 
lages where they happened to be. In spite of all 
this, whenever the order was given to charge, 
they charged the enemy with a sort of inspired 
madness. 

**The fight has been a hard one," Marshall Jof- 

52 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

fre wrote in an order of the day that will be fa- 
mous throughout eternity. "The casualties, the 
number of men worn out by the exhaustion due to 
lack of sleep — and sometimes of food — passed aU 
imagining. . . . Comrades, the commander in 
chief has asked you to do more than your duty, 
and you have responded to this request by accom- 
plishing the impossible." That is the finest word 
of praise that has been given fighting men since 
the world began. 

They knew how to suffer, those other soldiers 
of the Battle of the Mame who were a part of 
General Foch's army at Fere-Champenoise. Five 
times they attacked the Chateau de Mondement, 
and five times they were driven back. Their of- 
ficers were consulting as to the best thing to do; 
and the men surrounded the officers, begging them 
with tears in their eyes to lead them to the as- 
sault for the sixth time. For the sixth time the 
attack was sounded, and at the sixth assault Cha- 
teau de Mondement fell. 

That officer at Verdun knew how to suffer. He 

53 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

will remain a figure for the legends of the fu- 
ture for, running to transmit an order, he re- 
ceived a bullet in the eyes which shattered his 
optic nerve. He was completely blinded. Never- 
theless, he continued to advance, trying to grope 
his way through the night that had fallen upon 
him. He encountered something lying on the 
ground — a something that was a man just as bad- 
ly wounded. The blind man besought him for 
help. 

"How can I help you," said the wounded man, 
"a shell has broken both my legs." 

"What difference does that make," shouted the 
blinded man, "I am going to carry you on my 
back. My legs will be yours, and your eyes will 
be mine." 

And, one supporting the other, the blinded man 
and the lamed man carried on ! 

That officer knew how to suffer whom one of 
my brothers met on the battle field of Lorraine. 
An artillery officer, his arm was shattered, a few 
bits of flesh barely holding it fast to his shoulder. 

54 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

IMy brother, when he saw the man painfully drag- 
ging himself along, asked him whether or not 
he needed help. _^ 

"I don't need help," replied the wounded man, 
"but my battery down there docs. It is retreat- 
ing." 

"If it is retreating, it can't be helped and it is 
a waste of time for me to get it ammunition. . . ." 

"No," begged the lieutenant, "get the muni- 
tions. We Colonials fight until the last man 
falls. . . ." 

He offered to guide my brother, mounted beside 
him on tlie artillery caisson, and stayed there all 
day. For after he had supplied his own battery, 
it was the battery next it, and then the one next 
to that, which he wanted to supply. . . . Finally, 
in the evening, at nightfall, they came to take him 
off in the ambulance. The major looked at his 
shattered arm, examined his frightful wound, and 
muttered : 

"You are in a bad way. Couldn't you have come 
here sooner?" 

55 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

The lieutenant replied humbly: 

**Pardon me, I lost a lot of time on the way." 

Those men I saw for months fighting and dying 
to the south of Verdun, at the Butte des Eparges, 
knew how to suffer. 

The Butte des Eparges dominates the great 
plain of the Woevre, and from the very beginning 
it has been the theater of a frightful and long 
drawn out battle of the kind one seldom sees in 
this war. The Germans have been entrenched on 
the left side of the Butte, the French on the right. 
And day and night for four years there has been 
an incessant battle over its summit of grenades, 
bombs and shells; a terrible hand-to-hand fight 
in which neither one of the contestants yields an 
inch of ground, A brook of blood runs its in- 
terrupted course on each slope. On the south 
slope it is red with German blood; with French 
blood on the north. 

The two slopes of the Butte have been so raked 
by firing that they have not a single tree, bush, or 
blades of grass on them; they stand out sinister 

56 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

and frightful in their nakedness, seeming ta cry 
out to the men of the plain: 

"See, all of you, the scourge of God has passed 
over this place." 

They are dented, furrowed and blown into cre- 
vasses by the explosions of mines ; they are sown 
over with the enormous funnels in which the fight- 
ers take shelter; they are covered with an inces- 
sant smoke from the projectiles that plow them 
up. 

As for the summit, it is a no man's land, that 
belongs to the dead men whose bodies cover it. 
The summit stopped being a battle field to become 
a charnel house. The number of men who have 
fallen there will never be known. The most fan- 
tastic figures come from the lips of those who 
come down . . . 5,000, 8,000, 10,000 ... it will 
never be known. But what is known is that the 
dead are always there. They form a parapet 
above which the living fight on. These dead rot 
in the sunshine and in the rain. In accordance 
with the wind's being from the east or the west, 
the frightful odor of all this rotten flesh strikes 

57 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

the Germans or the French. They lie there, an 
indistinguishable mass on the ground, and the 
men are unlucky who watch by night in the listen- 
ing posts or the trenches. They think they are 
stumbling against a stone, and it is a skull their 
feet are touching; they think they are picking up 
the branch of a tree, and they have hold of the 
arm of a corpse. 

However, in the shadow of this human charnel 
house, at the edge of this bloody sewer, some little 
French soldiers come and go, eat and sleep for 
months at a time. The dreadfulness of the sights, 
the stench in the air, the tragic presence of death 
has not gripped their souls, their courage or their 
nerves. They are no less confident and merry than 
the others and, in the evening, when the setting 
sun adds the purple of its shadows to the red of 
all the blood that has been shed on the Butte, they 
sing from the depths of their charnel house sweet 
love songs. . . . This is the most regally beauti- 
ful sight I have seen in this war; it is the most 
splendidly moving example I know of what per- 
sonal sacrifice for one's country's sake can do. 

58 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

One day, in a rest village In the neighborWod, 
I met a soldier from one of the battalions which 
was encamped in the chamel house. He was a 
boy twenty years old, who hurried along with a 
flower in his buttonhole, whistling a tune. . . . 
He was so joyful that I asked him: 

"You seem as happy as you can be." 

"I have leave. Sir," he answered, "and in a 
week I shall go to the country to see my mother. 
But, for the present, I have to go and take the 
trench at Eparges. . . ." 

As he mentioned the name of the accursed 
Butte, I could not repress a movement. He saw 
it and said: 

"Sir, I am glad to go there." 

And he told me his name and the number of his 
company. Then he hurried away. 

It chanced that precisely one week later I met 
one of his officers. I asked him about the merry 
fellow. 

"That man? He was killed the day before yes- 
terday at Eparges." 

And my comrade added in a low voice : 

59 



/ FIGHTING FRANCE 

"He was shot down at my side, struck with a 
bullet square in the chest. The death agony set 
in at once. As I was tr^ang to do something 
for him, passing my hand gently across his fore- 
head, I said to him: 

"Courage, my boy, courage." 

He murmured the reply: 

"Oh, I'm glad to die." 

Glad . . . the same phrase, the same words 
I had heard a week ago, which can be heard every- 
where on the French front — and they are glad 
to go into all the trenches and into all the chamel 
houses, and it is with a happy heart that they rest 
in peace. 

• • • • • • » 

But France has not only fought with all her 
courage, with all her soul, with all her tenacity. 
She has fought with all her living strength, with 
her men, her women, even her children. 

What can I say which has not already been said 
about the men.? When I think of my own men, 
when I think of all the men floundering and fight-' 
ing in this mud, I can find no other means of 

60 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

expression than the words that have already 
served the Commander in Chief of the French 
Army, General Petain, on the evening of his great 
victory at the Chemin des Dames. In receiving 
the American newspapermen, he said to them: 

"Do not speak of us, the generals and the of- 
ficers. Speak only of the men. We have done 
nothing; the men have done everything. Our men 
are wonderful; we, their leaders, can only kneel 
at their feet." 

The women have been no less wonderful. And 
I want to write a few words about them. 

The women who are at the front have fought 
like the men. Can you imagine a more beautiful 
deed of arms than that of a young girl, twenty 
years old, named Marcelle Semer, whose heroic 
story a French Cabinet Minister, M. Klotz, told 
recently at one of the Matinees Nationales at the 
Sorbonne. 

In August, 1914, there lived at Eclusier, near 
Frise, a young girl with gray eyes and blonde hair 
named Marcelle Semer. She was twenty years old 

61 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

at the time and kept accounts in addition to over- 
seeing the work of a factory. At the time of the 
August invasion, after the Battle of Charleroi, the 
French tried to halt the Germans at the Somme. 
Not being in sufficient force, they retreated, cross- 
ing the river and the canal. The enemy imme- 
diately pursued. Marcelle Semer, who was fol- 
lowing the French troops^ had the presence of 
mind, after the last soldier had crossed the Somme 
Canal, to open the drawbridge in order to pre- 
vent the Germans fi*om crossing it, and to hurl 
the key to the bridge into the canal in order that 
they might not take it from her when they came 
up. An entire enemy army corps was thus de- 
tained for twenty-four hours by this young girl's 
presence of mind ; and it was only on the following 
day that the enem}^, having found some boats on 
the Somme, made a bridge of them and passed over 
the canal. But the French soldiers were already 
far away. 

The Germans were masters of the neighborhood 
for some days. They seized the inhabitants as 
hostages and shut them up in a cave. Marcelle 

62 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

Semer secretly carried them food. She also car- 
ried sustenance to other inhabitants who had hid- 
den in the woods or in cellars. She succored and 
concealed the soldiers whom wounds or fatigue 
had prevented from following the main body of 
troops. She contrived that sixteen of them, 
dressed as civilians, escaped. Then she was ap- 
prehended hj the Germans, arrested and led into 
the presence of a court-martial. The judgment 
was summary, and after a quarter of an hour's 
questioning Marcelle Semer was condemned to 
death. 

**Do you admit," asked the presiding officer, 
''that you helped French soldiers to escape.'^" 

**I certainly do," she replied. "I managed it 
so that sixteen of them escaped, and they are be- 
yond your reach. Now you can do what you want 
to me. I am an orphan. I have only one mother 
—France, She does not disturb me when I'm 
dvino^." 

This was one time when God intervened. 
Marcelle did not die. Brought to the place of 
execution, at the very moment when they were 

63 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

about to shoot, the French reentered the village 
and, by a miracle, she escaped her executioners. 
Today she wears the Croix de Guerre and the 
medal of the Legion of Honor. 

• ••«••• 

THiey were Frenchwomen and fighters, these 
women whose names and deeds are to be found in 
the columns of the "Journal Officiel." Read, for 
example, this citation concerning Madame Mach- 
erez. President of the Association des Dames 
Fran9aises de Soissons : 

She willingly assumed the responsibility and the 
danger of representing the city before the enemy, 
and defended or managed the interests of the pop- 
ulation in the absence of the mayor and the ma- 
jority of the members of the town council. In 
spite of an intense bombardment which partially 
ruined the city, she took the most effective means 
possible to maintain calm in the city and to pro- 
tect the lives of the inhabitants. 

In this department, a lay instructress, Mile. 
Cheron, merited a citation which does not contain 
the least over-praise: 

She evidenced the greatest energy in difficult 

64 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

circumstances. Charged with the duties of Secre- 
tary to the Mayor, and alone at the time of the 
arrival of the Germans, she was not disconcerted 
by their threats, and kept her head in the face 
of their demands with remarkable calm and de- 
cision. When our troops returned, she assumed 
responsibility for the service and feeding of the 
cantonment. She personally took the steps nec- 
essary for the identification and burial of the dead. 
Finally, she was able to prevent panic at the time 
of the bombardment by the force of her example 
and her encouragement of the populace. 

Those three nuns were also Frenchwomen and 
fighters of whom the "Journal Officiel" in the gen- 
eral order spoke as follows: 

Mile. Rosnet, Marie, sister of the order of St. 
Vincent de Paul, Mother Superior of the Hospice 
at Clermont-en-Argonne, remained alone in the 
village and showed during the German occupation 
an energy and coolness beyond aU praise. Having 
received a promise from the enemy that they 
would respect the town in exchange for the care 
the sisters gave their wounded, she protested to 
the German commander against the burning of the 
town with the observation that "the word of a 
German officer is not worth that of a French of- 

66 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

ficer." Thus she obtained the help of a company 
of sappers who fought the flames. She gave the 
most devoted care to the wounded, German as well 
as French. . . . 

Mile. Constance, Mother Superior of the Hos- 
pice at Badonvillers, during the three successive 
German occupations in 1914, assisted the sisters 
and remained bravely at her post night and day, 
in spite of aU danger, and was busy everywhere 
with a devotion truly admirable. . . . 

MUe. Brasseur, Sister Etienne, Mother Superior 
of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul in the Hos- 
pital at Compiegne, from the war's beginning at 
the head of a staff whose tireless devotion has de- 
served all praise, has given the most intelligent 
and enlightened care to numerous wounded men. 
During the time of the German occupation, her 
coolness and energetic attitude assured the safety 
of the establishment she directed. Her brave ini- 
tiative allowed several French soldiers to escape 
from captivity. 

The modest postmistress and telegraph operator 
was a Frenchwoman and a fighter, who, in the lit- 
tle village of Houpelines, in the north of the coun- 

66 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

try, deserved this citation in the orders of the day, 
of which thousands of soldiers would be proud: 

Refusing to obey the order that was given her 
to leave her post, she remained in spite of the dan- 
ger. On the first of October the Germans entered 
her office, smashed her apparatus and threatened 
her with death. Mile. Deletete, who had put her 
valuables and accounts in safe-keeping, gave evi- 
dence of the greatest calmness. From the seven- 
teenth on she endured the bombardment. Her of- 
fice having been damaged severely by the enemy's 
fire, she took refuge in the civil hospice, where four 
persons were kiUed at her side. She resumed her 
duties on the twenty-third, since which date she 
has continued to perform them in the face of fre- 
quent bombardments which have found many vic- 
tims. 

The women behind the lines have been worthy of 
their sisters at the front. 

In the forges, the foundries, the factories and 
the munition plants they have not feared to don 
the blouse of the workingman, and on this blouse 
they wear as insignia a large grenade like that 
on the brassard of the mobilized men. Note these 
figures. On the first of February, 1916, the civil 

67 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

establishments of war, the munition plants, and 
the Marine workshops employed 127,792 women. 
The number has increased, and on the first of 
March, 1917, they numbered 375,582 women. On 
the first of January, 1918, the women working in 
the factories manufacturing war material amount- 
ed to 475,000; that is to say, in round numbers, 
a half million. 

Others, in the hospitals, ambulance and dispen- 
saries have devoted themselves to the wounded, the 
mutilated, the sick and the suffering, to the sacri- 
fice of their health, their youth, and sometimes 
their life itself. Here again the figures are elo- 
quent — they speak for themselves. Three great 
societies, constituting the French Red Cross, have 
carried on this work of charity and devotion — the 
Societe de Secours aux Blesses Militaires, the 
Union des Dames de France, and The Association 
des Dames Fran9aises. At the war's outbreak the 
Societe de Secours aux Blesses had 375 hospitals 
with 17,939 beds ; today it has 796 hospitals with 
67,000 beds and 15,510 graduated nurses, three 
thousand of whom are employed in military 

68 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

hospitals. On the thirty-first of December, 1916, 
the Union des Dames de France had 363 hospi- 
tals with 30,000 beds and more than 20,000 grad- 
uate or volunteer nurses. From August, 1914, to 
March, 1917, the Association des Dames Fran- 
9aises had raised the number of its hospitals from 
100 to 350, and from 5,000 to 18,000 the number 
of its beds; the number of its graduate nurses 
from 5,000 to 7,000. 

On the thirty-first of December, 1916, the three 
societies counted about 42,000,000 days of hospi- 
tal work, 25,000,000 for the Societe de Secours 
aux Blesses alone. From the beginning of the 
war, this society has expended for equipment the 
sum of 38,700,000 francs. 

Aside from these there are other figures which 
show the material effort of the Frenchwomen 
which I can not pass over in silence. They show 
the civic devotion of which they are capable. The 
Societe de Secours aux Blesses has been granted 
one cross of the Legion of Honor, 94 Croix de 
Guerre, 119 Medailles d'Honneur des epidemics. 
The Association des Dames Fran9aises has won 

69 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

17 Croix de Guerre and 80 Medailles des epidemles. 
The Union des Femmes de France has won 39 
Croix de Guerre. And last comes the glorious 
list of martyrs of the societies: 110 nurses have 
died in the devoted performance of their duties. 

The heroism of these valiant women, many of 
whom remained in the occupied territories, will be 
the eternal pride of France. Madame Perouse, 
President of the Union des Femmes de France 
wrote to M. Louis Barthou teUing him the number 
of women who had risked their liberty, their life, 
their honor even, to protect in the face of the 
ferocious enemy the sacred rights of the French 
wounded. It is fitting to add that, if they have 
taken care of the German wounded as well as the 
French wounded, they can always recall the reply 
of a devoted teacher of the Marne district. Mile. 
Fouriaux, to a German major: 

"Sir, we have only done our duty as nurses, 
never forgetting that we are Frenchwomen." 

Mile. Joulin, a nurse at Douai, did not forget 
her duty as a Frenchwoman. She was held a pris- 
oner by the Germans for a year in the camp at 

70 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

Holzminden, in which she took the place of the 
mother of five children who had been put down on 
the list of hostages drawn up by the German bar- 
barians. 

And if you would know where these heroic 
women have poured out their courage, their cool- 
ness and their physical resistance, which they have 
put in the service of their country and of human- 
ity, you have but to listen to the declaration of one 
of them, Mile. Canton-Baccara, who has been made 
a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, for having 
shown bravery and exceptional devotion in the 
face of the greatest danger : 

"The wounded soldier who suffers," said Mile. 
Canton-Baccara, "the soldier who is complaining 
or the peasant who is weeping for the farm that 
has been pillaged, a woman's smile ought to con- 
sole and her voice ought, under all circumstances, 
to be ready to recall to him that above these 
sufferings and troubles, above the paltry strug- 
gles of interest and ambition, there is, above all 
this, France, our France, which matters before 
all else." 

71 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

Still other women, who were neither in the hos- 
pitals, at the front, nor in the factories, have been 
admirable fighters. They fought, according to 
Mle. Canton-Baccara's words, with their heart 
and with their smile. They fought by the example 
of abnegation they gave, by the moral force with 
which they inspired the men in the trenches. 

Madame de Castelnau is a glorious figure, she, 
the wife of the General who saved Nancy and 
stopped the rush of the barbarians on the Grand 
Couronne! . . . Madame de Castelnau had, be- 
fore the war broke out, four sons. Three fell on 
the battle field. The fourth is actually still a pris- 
oner in the hands of the Germans. On the lips of 
their father there is never the slightest word of 
complaint; on the lips of the mother there are 
these admirable words, which the children in the 
schools will repeat later on. . , . Madame de 
Castelnau was in a little village when her third son 
was killed. The cure of the village had the pitiful 
task of telling the already mourning mother of 
this new blow that had struck her. The cure 
found Madame de Castelnau, and, in the presence 

72 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

of her great sorrow, he hesitated and was over- 
come with embarrassment: 

"Madame," he said, "I come to bring you an- 
other blow. But know well that all the mothers 
of France weep for you.'* 

Madame de Castelnau knew the truth at once. 
She interrupted the priest and, looking him 
straight in the eye, replied: 

"Yes, I know what you are going to tell me. 
. . . God's will be done. But the mothers of 
France would be wrong in weeping for me. Let 
them envy me." 

Those are the words of a Frenchwoman of noble 
descent. But you can place on the same high level 
the words of an old woman, a humble soul, whom 
the gendarmes found one night crouched on a 
grave that was still fresh. It was up near Ver- 
dun. She told the gendarmes : 

"I come from La Rochelle. Five of my sons 
have already fallen in the war. I have come here 
to see where the sixth is buried — the sixth^ — ^my 
last son." 

Moved by the tragic grandeur of the sight, the 

73 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

gendarmes rendered her military honors and pre- 
sented arms. The mother rose and uttered the 
words her dead and her heart inspired : 

"Even so, Vive la France !" 

All of them, mothers of noble birth and of peas- 
ant stock, rich and poor, wives, sisters, and fian- 
cees are the first to exhort their sons, husbands 
and brothers to fight to the end. All have the 
same words of sacrifice and abnegation on their 
lips. All of them find words which best fortify, 
exalt and console their men. 

Read this letter I picked up on the field of bat- 
tle, a letter written by a humble peasant woman 
whose heart, after centuries of noble and wise 
discipline, was in the right place: 

My dear Boy: 

We got your letter, which gave us great pleas- 
ure. We waited anxiously for it. You wrote it 
two days ago. Since that time things have 
changed. Did you get m}^ letter? I hope so. I 
must reassure you about your father the very 
first thing. He was away only three days, time 
enough to guide a detachment to Bourges. So 

74 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

there is only one vacant place at the fireside, but 
how big that one is. 

My dear boy, you speak to me of sacrifice ; yes, 
it is one. And I can tell you it is the greatest one 
that has ever been asked of me. However, I keep 
calm. I tell myself sometimes that I have deserved 
it. I am ready to pay, but I wish so much that 
you might not pay. 

My dear boy, you speak to me of duty and of 
honor. I have never doubted that you would do 
what you ought to. Yes, my son, a soldier's honor 
lies in being on the battle field when the country 
is in danger. Go, then, my son, with the blessing 
of your mother and your father, and with that 
most mighty one of your country and of heaven. 

You tell me to accept my lot courageously. 
Alas, sometimes it fails me. However, I shall try 
to be resigned and I hope to see you again in spite 
of everything. If that should not happen, say to 
yourself, my dear boy, when you close your eyes, 
that you have all the love and all the sweetest 
kisses of your mother, who would like to fly to 
you. 

The sisters are worthy of their mothers. Here 
is a letter written by two young girls who live in 
Lorraine, near Nancy. Plutarch never wrote any- 
thing more beautiful: 

75 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

Mo YEN, 4 September, 1914!. 

My dear Edouard: 

I have heard that Charles and Lucien died on 
the twenty-eighth of August. Eugene is badly 
wounded. As for Louis and Jean, they are dead 
also. 

Rose has gone away. 

Mother weeps, but she says that you are brave 
and wishes that you may avenge them. 

I hope that your officers will not refuse you 
that. Jean won the Legion of Honor; follow in 
his footsteps. 

They have taken everything from us. Of the 
eleven who went to war, eight are dead. My dear 
Edouard, do your duty ; we ask only that. 

God gave you life; he has the right to take it 
away from you. Mother says that. 

We embrace you fondly, although we would 
like to see you. The Prussians are here. Jandon 
is dead; they have pillaged everything. I have 
just returned from Gerbevillers, which is de- 
stroyed. What wretches they are ! 

Sacrifice your Hfe, my dear brother. We hope 
to see you again, for something like a presentiment 
tells us to hope. 

76 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

We embrace you fondly. Farewell, and may we 
see you again, if God grants. 

(Signed) Your Sistees. 

P. S. It is for us and for France. Think of 
your brothers and of your grandfather in 1870. 

And this next letter is sublime. It was ad- 
dressed to M. Maurice Barres by a lady from the 
city of Lyons, which is perhaps the most mystic 
city in all France. In the newspapers mention 
had been made of the men disabled by war, and of 
all the unfortunates who were mutilated, whose 
limbs had been amputated, who were helpless or 
blinded. The question was raised of knowing what 
ought to be done to help them. Then the lady 
wrote as follows to M. Barres: 

Sir : One of these recent days, when our trou- 
bles have been so hard to bear, I went to regain 
my courage into one of the beloved sanctuaries 
of Notre Dame. ... A lady dressed in black 
came in beside me and, as all mothers are sisters 
in these trying days, I asked after her men at 
the front. She told me sadly that she was a poor 
widow, and that the war had taken away her two 
sons, her sole means of support. One of them had 

7T 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

had an arm amputated — the right arm — and the 
hands of the other were cut off at the wrists. She 
came from seeing them to pray to the Mother of 
Sorrows for her children and herself. 

I was deeply moved by her sorrow and by her 
not complaining. I sought means to console her. 
This is the means I have found, sir, and I tell 
it to you now. . . . 

Let us ask the Virgin, I said to her, to create 
young women in France so brave, so strong, and 
so devoted that they will gladly and proudly con- 
sent to marry the poor, injured men and to be 
not only their hearts but the limbs which will aid 
them to make their daily bread; leaving to the 
men the privilege of loving them, of respecting 
their presences and of guiding their lives. 

The poor woman understood me. We sepa- 
rated. My own youngest daughter was in my 
thoughts ; and do you not think that the men who 
have a wider audience could stir the hearts of the 
young women, twenty 3'^ears of age in France, if 
they asked them to perform this act of devotion, 
and to be the companions of the mutilated, maimed 
men of France? ... 

Then, too, the women who had only their dig- 
nity and their high spirit to defend themselves 
against the grossness and the insults of the Prus- 

78 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

sians, have been the incarnation of the spirit of 
France. 

An old woman who dwelt in a village on the 
Aisne was spattered with mud by the Kaiser as 
he passed by on horseback. He made a gesture 
excusing himself. She fixed her eyes on him and 
said simply: 

*'It doesn't matter, sir. That mud can be 
washed off." 

A great lady in one of the chateaux in the in- 
vaded regions, had to receive one of the Kaiser's 
sons. The day of his departure he sent for her 
to thank her for the hospitality she had shown 
him. The old lady, looking at him, contented her- 
self with replying : 

"Do not thank me, sir. I did not invite you 
here." 

And she reentered her house with all dignity. 

Because the women of France have been all 
this and have done all this, France has been able 
to fight on, and will be able to fight to the end. 
Because the women of France have been all this 

79 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

and have done aU this, the soldiers, in the mud 
of the trenches, revere them as Madonnas. 

The historian Tacitus teUs somewhere how, on 
a hot spring day, a slave, panting and worn out, 
entered one of the gates of the Eternal City. 
He crossed the Forum without stopping and, in 
his course, mounted the Hill of Mars. Finally 
he came to one of the greatest houses of the pa- 
trician section of the city. His cries and shouts 
filled the house: 

"Alas, alas !" he cried. 

A lady hastened to him. She was the mistress 
of the house, the famous Cornelia Graccha. 

"What news do you bring?" she asked. 

"Alas, alas," repeated the slave, "in the battle 
down there in Umbria, two of your sons have been 
killed." 

"Fool," was the reply, "I do not ask that. Have 
the Barbarians been conquered .f^" 

"They have, Cornelia." 

"Then what matters the death of my sons if 
my country is victorious !" 

Those wonderful words have been handed down 

80 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

from generation to generation as a symbol of 
what ancient Rome was. Those words thousands 
of French women have uttered for the last four 
years, and they still utter them today. Other 
voices answer them. They rise from the trenches, 
and they say : 

"Be without fear, women of France. For you 
we wiU fight to our last gasp, we will shed our 
last drop of blood. Know that if for months we 
have held our heads below the level of the muddy 
trench and offered our breasts to death, it is that 
you may be freed from the wild beasts that have 
burst forth from the German forests. For your 
sakes our homes are not in ruins and our towns 
are not vassals to the enemy. It is all for you, so 
that when we shall return you need not throw 
your arms around conquered necks. Our country, 
women of France, is made up of our homes, our 
churches, and our fields, and of your beloved faces. 
Throughout the tragic periods of its history, our 
country has always been incarnated in your faces, 
whether they called themselves St. Genevieve or 
Jeanne d'Arc. And in our building, to personify 
the cities that are dear to us, we have always taken 
your bodies, your foreheads, and the folds of your 
gowns — see, in Paris, that statue in the Place de 

81 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

la Concorde, in the shadow of the Tuileries, which 
for days has worn a crepe veil. . . . Well, today 
is the same as yesterday. In our trenches our 
country appears to us in those visions wherein are 
mingled your faces. We shall believe that our 
country has been well served only when, on your 
beloved faces, we shall have caused a smile to ap- 
pear because the palms we have placed at your 
feet are the palms of victory." 

Future historians will state that France has 
fought not only with all her courage, her tenacity 
and her soul, with all her men, women and chil- 
dren: they will also state that these men, women 
and children, in spite of the terrible times, their 
suffering and their mourning, have remained firm- 
ly united, forming a firm rock from which not a 
single stone has been splintered. 

In that tormented, feverish France where the 
ardor of the Revolution still bolls, there were, 
before the war, different parties, cliques, groups 
and churches. The war has leveled, united and 
bound them all together. 

In some admirable pages, consecrated to the 
"Effort of French Womanhood," M. Louis Bar- 

82 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

thou has painted the picture of the sacred union 
there is among all the French women : 

I have seen [he writes] our women at the front 
and behind the lines, in the hospitals, the railway 
stations, the automobile service, the canteens, the 
factories, in relief work and in charity work. I 
have met nurses, unmoved under a bombardment. 
I have tested the spirit of fellowship which unites 
them, including as it does the names of the most 
aristocratic French families and the most modest 
citizens. There is no false pride among those in 
high places nor envy among those lower in the 
social scale. They wear the same garb, the same 
cap, with the same cross on their foreheads. For 
the soldiers there is the same uniform, and when 
you say uniform you mean equality in devotion, in 
the risk of hfe, and in loyalty to duty. Between 
the classes of society there is no contention, there 
is only emulation. I do not know whether or not, 
in times of peace, they had all and everywhere 
escaped the local passions wliich have poisoned na- 
tional life, but the war has given them sacred union 
for a countersign, and they, as disciplined soldiers, 
have respected this countersign. 

The French nurse's smile wiU have served the 
nation's defense well, but I emphasize this when I 
think how well it will have served the nation's uni- 

83 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

ty in the aftermath that shall follow war. What 
rancors it will have appeased! What jealousies 
it will have blotted out! What petty prejudices 
it will have conquered ! These society women and 
women of the middle class who have leaned over 
the beds of sick or wounded peasants, and these 
young girls who have tended their hurts, bound 
up their wounds, and calmed their sufferings have, 
with their delicate hands, so expert in the worst 
treatments, laid the foundations of a France that 
is united and fraternal, where envy and hate have 
no place. All eyes have opened to broader vistas 
of revealed clearness, to which they have hitherto 
remained closed through prejudice, or obstinacy. 
They will have learned that bravery, devotion to 
the right, loyal and tried disinterestedness, heart- 
felt and wise knowledge can dwell in the simple 
soul of the peasant and the workingman. The 
peasants and the workingmen who have come out 
from their care will have learned that luxury does 
not exclude goodness, that beauty is not always a 
sterile gift, that youth is not altogether callow, 
that a woman can be pretty and generous, deli- 
cate and courageous, rich and sympathetic, and 
that the mothers whose children are dead excel 
in lavishing the care of their hands and the ten- 
derness of their hearts on the wounded children 
who are suffering far from their mothers. 

84 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

The sacred sense of union that reigns among 
the men is no less firm. It is only necessary to 
read the letters written on the eve of their deaths 
— in that hour when a man, alone, face to face 
with himself, lets his soul speak — ^by the fighters 
who gave their heart's blood for the sacred cause. 

They all say the same things. 

Here is a letter a Jew wrote, named Rob- 
ert Hertz, a second lieutenant of the 330th in- 
fantry regiment, who fell on the 13th of April, 
1915, at MarcheviUe: 

My Dear : I remember the dreams I had when 
I was a little child. With all my soul I wished to 
be a Frenchman, to be worthy to be one, and to 
prove that I was one. . . . Now the old, childish 
dream comes back to me, stronger than it ever was. 
I am grateful to the officers who have accepted 
me for their subordinate, to the men I have been 
proud to lead. They are the children of a chosen 
people. I am full of gratitude towards our coun- 
try which has received me and heaped favors upon 
me. Nothing would be too much to give in pay- 
ment for that, and for the fact that my little son 
may always hold his head high and never know, 
in the reborn France, that torment which has 

85 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

poisoned many hours of our childhood and of our 
youth. "Am I a Frenchman?" "Would I deserve 
to be one?" No, little boy, you shall not say that. 
You shall have a native land and your step may 
sound on the earth, nourishing you with the as- 
surance, "My father was there and he gave all he 
had for France." If recompense is necessary, this 
is the sweetest one there is for me. 

This is the letter of a Protestant, second lieu- 
tenant Maurice Dieterlin, who was kiUed on the 
sixth of October, 1915, and who, on the eve of 
the Champagne offensive, wrote these last words 
they were to read from him, to his family : 

I saw the most beautiful day of all my life. I 
regret nothing and I am as happy as a king. I 
am glad to pay my debt that my country may be 
free. Tell my friends that I go on to victory with 
a smile on my lips, happier than the stoics and the 
martyrs of all time. For a moment we are beyond 
the France that is eternal. France ought to live. 
France will live. Get ready your loveliest gowns, 
keep your best smiles to welcome the conquerors 
in the great war. Perhaps we shall not be there, 
but there will be others in our places. Do not 
weep, do not wear mourning, for we shall have 

86 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

died with a sweet smile on our lips and a lovely 
superhumanity in our hearts. Vive la France! 
Vive la France! 

What wonderful enthusiasm! But still more 
beautiful is this prayer, that of a little Protestant 
soldier from the Montbeliard country, who died 
in the Gare d'Amberieu hospital: 

"Lord, may Thy will and not mine be done. I 
have consecrated myself to Thee since my youth, 
and I hope that the example I have offered may 
serve to glorify Thee. 

"Lord, Thou knowest that I have not desired 
war, but that I have fought to do Thy will; I 
offer my life for peace. 

"Lord, I pray Thee for the welfare of my peo- 
ple. Thou knowest how greatly I love them all, 
my father, my mother, my brothers and my sis- 
ters. 

"Lord, return manyfold to these nurses the 
good they have done me; I am but a poor man 
but Thou art the dispenser of riches. I pray to 
Thee for them all." 

This prayer, in which the little soldier had put 
his last living thoughts, was received by a Catho- 

87 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

lie sister who had cared for him, and sent by her 
to his sorrowing family — a touching proof of 
sacred union. 

All of them, Catholics, Protestants and Jews, 
speak of God and pray to Him. . . . Read this 
letter from Captain Cornet-Acquier, that captain 
to whom his wife wrote, "I would urge you on with 
my voice if I saw you charging the enemy.'* He 
tells this little incident: 

"A Catholic captain was saying the other day 
that he said his prayers before each battle. The 
commanding officer remarked that that was not 
the proper moment and that he would do better 
to make his military arrangements. 

" 'Sir,' he replied, 'that does not prevent me 
from making my military arrangements and from 
fighting. I feel better for it.'" 

"Then I said: 

" 'Captain, I do the same thing you do. And 
I find I get along pretty well.' " 

This is the letter a young Catholic wrote the 
evening before a battle to his fiancee : 



88 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

My dear Jeanne : 

Tomorrow at ten o'clock, to the sounds of "Sidi 
-Brahim" and the "Marseillaise'' we charge the 
German lines. The attack will probably be dead- 
ly. On the eve of this great day, which may be 
my last, I want to recall to you your prom- 
ise. . . . Comfort my mother. For a week she; 
will have no news. TeU her that when a man 
is in an attack he can not write to those he loves. 
He must be content with thinking of them. And 
if time passes and she hears nothing from me^ 
let her live in hope. Help her. And if you learn 
at last that I have fallen on the field of honor, let 
the words come from your heart that will console 
her, my dear Jeanne. 

This morning I attended mass and communion 
with faith. It was held some yards away from 
the trenches. If I am to die, I shall die a Christian 
and a Frenchman. 

I believe in God, in France and in Victory. I 
believe in beauty and youth and life. May God 
guard me to the end. But, Lord, if my blood is 
useful for victory, may Thy will be done. 

Finally, here is a priest, Father Gilbert de Gi- 
ronde, second lieutenant in the 81st infantry, who 
was killed on the seventh of December, 1914!, at 

89 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

Ypres, writing his last letter. . . . For of the 
twenty-five thousand priests who went off at the 
beginning of the mobolization, three hundred were 
called military chaplains, the rest were officers, 
stretcher-bearers, or common soldiers — and note 
the 4,000 citations in the army orders which the 
"Journal Officiel" has published, which report the 
acts of courage and of bravery done by these 
priests on the battle field: 

To die young. To die a priest. To die as a 
soldier in the attack, marching to the assault in 
full sacerdotal garb, perhaps in the act of grant- 
ing an absolution; to shed my blood for the 
Church, for France, for her Allies, for all those 
who carry in their hearts the same ideal I do, 
and for the others also, that they may know the 
joy of belief . . . how beautiful that is, how beau- 
tiful that is ! 

Catholics, Protestants, Jews, priests, ministers 
and rabbis, that is what they write. It is a be- 
littling, a profanation, that, in spite of myself, 
I have separated and differentiated among them. 
For down there, in the bloody mud of the trenches, 

90 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

they are one body which lives together and dies 
together. 

There was a little Breton who, on the Battle 
field of the Marne, was shot in the chest. The 
death agony at once set in, and in his agony he 
asked for a crucifix. No priest happened to be 
on the spot, there was only a Jewish rabbi. The 
rabbi ran to get the crucifix, he brought it to the 
lips of the dying man, and he, in his turn, was 
killed! . . . 

In a little barrack in the hollow of one of the 
depressions at Verdun lived together a priest, a 
minister and a rabbi. We often saw the place. 
On the evening after a frightful battle, they were 
all three in the charnel house where the dead bodies 
are brought. They were surrounded by stretcher- 
bearers, who said to them: 

"We do not dare throw earth on the bodies of 
our comrades without a prayer being said over 
them." 

The Catholic priest asked to what faith they 
belonged. 

91 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

"We do not know. How can we find out? But 
can't you arrange among yourselves?" 

"Well, we shall bless them one after the other.'* 

And there in the bleeding night was seen the 
incomparable sight of the three men side by side, 
the Catholic, the Protestant and the Jew, reciting 
the last prayer and disappearing. ... 

M. Maurice Barres, the celebrated French 
writer, from whose magnificent book, "The Spirit- 
ual Families of France," I have borrowed a great 
number of the letters I have quoted, has pointed 
out that all French churches are fighting in this 
hour, forming one great church. Yes, every 
church and every saint is fighting! These saints 
belong to all beliefs, some of them to no belief. 
But one religion has united and solidified them 
all — the religion of their country, the religion of 
Liberty, the religion of civilization. All speak 
the same prayer, all have the same faith in their 
hearts, aU faU martyrs in the same cause. 

The old walls which, in times of peace, sep- 
arated parties and men, have crumbled into dust 
at the same time when the German shells crum- 

92 



HOW FRANCE IS FIGHTING 

bled into dust the little village churches. An in- 
finite cathedral, a cathedral that is invisible and 
great has risen on high. It is the cathedral of 
the faith of France, in which all faiths commune 
in the same hope — a cathedral which time and suf- 
fering and death itself shall not destroy. 



Ill 

FRANCE SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

LISTEN to the man in the street when he 
speaks — that man in the street who re- 
flects public opinion whether it is just 
or unjust, genuine or sophisticated. Listen to 
him when he speaks and you will hear him say : 

"Yes, we know. France has a well tempered 
spirit. But the blood is gone out of her body. 
France would like to fight on, to fight to the bitter 
end, but France is suffering. France is worn out. 
France is bled white." 

France is suffering . . . that is true. In the 
cataclysm that she did not wish for, that she did 
not start, that she did not prepare, she has lost 
more than a million men. And what men they 
were ! The Ecole Normale, which is the prepara- 
tory school for the French university, lost seventy 

94 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

per cent of its pupils. That means that three- 
quarters of the thinkers, the literary men, the 
scientists, the philosophers, the professors of the 
France of tomorrow have been wiped out. They 
were the flower of her youth, the elite of her in- 
telligence. Add to that seven departments, 
roughly 20,000 square kilometers in area, which 
have been invaded, devastated, ruined and pil- 
laged. In these seven departments all the machin- 
ery, all the raw materials, all the merchandise, all 
the furniture even to the door-knobs and the 
boards in the floors have been taken away. These 
departments were among the richest and most 
prosperous of those on which France prided her- 
self most industrially. 

Add to that the cultivation that has been de- 
stroyed, the soil that has been made untillable, the 
trees that have been cut down, the roads that have 
been torn up and the bridges that have been de- 
stroyed. AH the misery, all the mourning, all the 
sickness: a million wounded and injured men who 
have been lost as living forces by a nation which 
did not have too many inhabitants. Add the hun- 

95 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

dred thousand prisoners Germany sends back to 
us who have been made tuberculous, paralytics, 
nervous wrecks or lunatics because they have been 
physically maltreated. Yes, France is suffer- 
ing. 

But it is not true that she is worn out. It is 
not true that she is bled white. The horrible hope 
Germany had formed of emptying France of her 
strength, of leaving her, fighting for breath and 
conquered, beaten to the earth for centuries to 
come, has not been realized. France always 
stands upright, her arm is still strong, her muscles 
vigorous and her blood rich. 

To destroy the lie that France is bled white, 
we must let figures, facts, statistics and definite 
proofs speak. The pubhc shall judge for it- 
self. . . . 

A nation that is worn out and bled white has 
no army to defend itself. France not only stiU 
has an army, but she has an army that is numeri- 
cally and materially stronger than it was at the 
war's beginning. In 1914, at the Mame, France 
had an army of 1,500,000 men; today, after four 

96 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

years of war, France has on her battle front, in 
the war zone, an army of 2,750,000 men. 

But the value of fighting men today lies only 
in the artillery they have to support them behind 
the lines. It lies in the shells the artillery is 
able to fire, in all that material that makes up the 
sinews of war of the present day. Here we find 
the most extraordinary and marvelous effort that 
history records. France, invaded, occupied, 
weakened ; France that had no munitions industry 
prior to 1914 — or a small munitions industry at 
best — that France has built up a war industry 
that is doubtless the best in the world, which is 
equal to the German war industry and on which 
the Allies can draw in the common cause. 

Listen to these figures and keep them in your 
heads. They are vouched for by M. Millerand, 
who was minister of war during the first year of 
hostilities : 

The Battle of the Marne emptied our store- 
houses. 

On the seventeenth of September, 1914, the 
minister of war, who had then been scarcely three 

97 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

weeks in office, was informed that munitions threat- 
ened to fail our artillery, and that it was neces- 
sary without delay to bring to the front 100,000 
shells per day instead of 13,500 for the .75 guns. 
This was merely a beginning. Three days later, 
on the twentieth of September, the minister as- 
sembled at Bordeaux, the representatives of the 
munitions industry and divided them up into re- 
gional groups. At the head of each one he made 
one establishment or one individual the responsible 
person. In the face of difficulties which could not 
be conceived unless they had been overcome, with 
establishments diminished in personnel as well as 
in raw material, inexperienced for the most part 
in the complex and delicate operations which were 
expected of them, the manufacture of shells for 
the .75's mounted from 147,000 which it had been 
in the month of August, 1914, to 1,970,000 in 
the month of January, 1915, and then to 3,396,- 
000 during the month of July, 1915. 

222 .75 guns per month have been constructed 
since the month of May, 1915. 227 were con- 
structed in the month of July, 407 in the month of 
January, 1916. For this construction, as for all 
the others, once a start was made, there was no 
stopping it. 

All orders for heavy guns had been counter- 
manded at the beginning of August, 1914. . They 

98 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

were resumed in the month of September, 1914. 
Seventy-five per cent of the orders for heavy guns, 
on which we got along until April, 1917, had been 
given out between September, 1914!, and the thirty- 
first of October, 1915. In the first seven months 
of the war, from September, 1914, to April, 1915, 
there were constructed three hundred and sixty 
pieces of heavy artillery. On August first, 1914, 
we had only sixty-eight batteries. A year later, 
to the day, on the first of August, 1915, we had 
two hundred and seventy-two batteries of heavy 
artillery. 

Now consider these figures, given out by M. 
Andre Tardieu, High Commissioner of the French 
Republic at Washington, in a letter to the Hon. 
Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War: 

In the matter of heavy artillery, in August, 
1914, we had only three hundred guns distributed 
among the various regiments. In June, 1917, we 
had six thousand heavy guns, all of them modem. 
During our spring offensive in 1917, we had rough- 
ly one heavy gun for every twenty-six meters of 
front. If we had brought together all our heavy 
artillery and all our trench artillery, we would 
have had one gun for every eight meters in the 
battle sector. 

99 



FIGHTING FEANCE 

In August, 1914, we were making twelve thou- 
sand shells for the .75's per day, now we are mak- 
ing two hundred and fifty thousand shells for the 
.75's and one hundred thousand shells for the 
heavy guns per day. 

If you wish to consider the weight of the shells 
which fell on the German trenches during our last 
offensives, you will find the following figures for 
each linear meter: 

Field artillery 407 kilos 

Trench artillery WS kilos 

Heavy artillery 704 kilos 

High Power artillery 12 kilos 

Total 1442 kilos 

And these are the figures for the monthly ex- 
penditure in munitions for the .75's alone: 

July, 1916 6,400,000 shells 

September, 1916 7,000,000 shells 

October, 1916 5,500,000 shells 

During the last offensive the total expenditure 
amounted to twelve million projectiles of all cali- 
bers. 

This incomparable war industry has permitted 
us not only to fight, to defend ourselves and to 

100 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

attack the enemy, but also to supply our friends, 
our Allies, with the munitions necessary to fight. 
Up to January, 1918, these are the amounts of 
munitions France was able to hand over to the 
nations fighting at her side in Europe: 

1,350,000 rifles 

800,000,000 cartridges 

16,000,000 automatic rifles 

10,000 mitrailleuses 

2,500 heavy guns 

4,750 airplanes 

And to France has come the honor of making 
the light artillery for the American Army — 
amounting to several hundred guns per month. 



A nation that is worn out and bled white has 
an empty treasury and is no longer able to ob- 
tain taxes from its ruined citizens. Let us con- 
sider what France had done in a financial way in 
this war. 

From the first of August, 1914, to the first of 
January, 1918, the French Parliament voted war 

101 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

credits amounting to twenty billions of dollars. 
Of this enormous fund only two billions have 
been borrowed from outside sources; all the 
remainder has been subscribed or paid for by 
taxation or by loans in France herself. More 
than a biUion dollars has been loaned to her Allies 
by France. 

In 1917 France had the heaviest budget in all 
her history. The single item of taxes was raised 
to six billion francs ($1,200,000), and these taxes 
were paid to the penny, although ten million 
Frenchmen were mobilized in the Army, in the 
factories, and on the farms, or were untaxable 
in the occupied regions. 

In 1915, 1916 and 1917 France raised three 
great national loans. That of 1915 amounted to 
exactly 13,307,811,579 francs, 40 centimes, of 
which 6,017 millions were paid in hard cash. That 
of October, 1916, amounted in round numbers to 
ten billions francs, of which more than five billions 
were paid in hard cash. That of December, 1917, 
amounted to 10,629,000,000 francs, of which 
5,254 millions were paid in cash. 

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SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

Thus, in spite of the war, her invaded territor- 
ies, and her mobilized citizens, France has in three 
years raised three national loans of almost seven- 
teen billions francs in hard cash. That is three 
times the amount of the war indemnity she paid 
Prussia in 1871. 

A nation worn out and bled white has no more 
monetary reserve, no more funds in its treasury, 
and has been brought into bankruptcy. The 
Bank of France, which is probably the leading 
national bank in the world, whose credit has nevei 
weakened in the gravest hours of the nation's his- 
tory, declared on the first of January, 1918, a 
gold reserve of 5,348 millions of francs, an increase 
of 272 millions over the gold in hand on January 
first, 1917. This is the greatest deposit the bank 
has ever had. All this came from the national 
resources: the weekly payments are still a million 
and a half francs, which are paid without com- 
pulsion and without legal processes. 

The individual deposits in the great credit es- 
tablishments of France which, on the thirty-first 
of December, 1914, amounted to only 4,050 mil- 

103 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

lions of francs, amounted to 6,050 millions on the 
thirty-first of December, 1917. 

And during the first three months of the year 
1918, from the first of January to the thirty-first 
of March, the surplus deposits made by the peas- 
ants and the working classes in the National Sav- 
ing Bank was seventy-five millions of francs, an 
excess of more than eight hundred thousand francs 
daily. 

A nation that is worn out and bled white is 
incapable of manufacturing and sees its commerce 
and industry perish. Here is the statement of 
M. Georges Pallain, Governor of the Bank of 
France, representing the accounting of the Coun- 
sel General of the Bank for 1917: 

From the industrial and commercial point of 
view, a satisfactory amelioration is noticeable. 
The investigation of the Minister of Industry in 
July last permits the statement that the percent- 
age of factories and business houses rendering a 
periodical accounting, of which the advantage is 
not yet established, is only twenty-three per cent ; 
it was fifty-five per cent in August, 1914. 

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SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

An indication of the development of industrial 
activity is furnished by the continued increase of 
the demand for coal. 

Operations for mining ore have been pushed 
with vigor. Coal production increased greatly in 
1914<. On the whole it still remains less than it 
was before the war, since the invasion has deprived 
us of the valleys in the north and the richest por- 
tion of Pas-de-Calais; but in the regions where 
mining is still possible the production exceeds by 
about forty per cent the figures for 1913. 

This remarkable increase has compensated to a 
certain extent for the falling off in the importa- 
tions of coal from England; nevertheless it leaves 
our supply of coal less than our demand for it. 

To remedy this insufficiency and, at the same 
time, to give our national industry greater inde- 
pendence, researches and experiments have been 
equally intensified with a view to employing our 
hydraulic resources. In the Alps, in the Pyrenees 
and in the central Massif new installations are 
under way, and they have already attracted im- 
portant metallurgic and chemical plants. 

The development of industrial production has 
had the result of an increase in the volume of com- 
mercial transactions. These continue to look 
after themselves and, for the most part, they are 
on a cash basis. The gradual resumption of credit 

105 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

operations, which former years signalized, is still 
on the increase. In 1917 the receipts from com- 
merce were thirty-seven per cent greater than in 
1916. There is a notable progression of dis- 
counts, while the total of our delayed payments 
has been brought back to 1,14)0 millions. 

A nation that is worn out and bled white is 
unable to bind up its wounds or relieve its bed 
of suffering. France has not waited for the end 
of the war and the evacuation of her territory to 
bring in life where the Germans thought they had 
left only death. 

In eighty-four of the liberated cantons the work 
of reconstruction has already commenced. Com- 
missions have been appointed. These commissions 
have proceeded already to the evaluation of the 
damage done and, without waiting for authoriza- 
tion, the administration has paid advances 
amounting to a not inconsiderable figure. Thus a 
sum totalling more than one hundred and forty 
millions francs has been expended for the re- 
construction of the liberated regions. Seventeen 
millions have been expended in cash for repairs; 

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SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

in advances to the farmers for work or supplies, 
twenty millions; in advances to workmen, a half 
million; for the circulation of funds to the farm- 
ers, merchants and small manufactures, two mil- 
lions; under the heading of reconstruction of 
buildings or the rapid reinstallation of the evacu- 
ated population, one hundred millions. 

An Ofjice National de Reconstruction for 
the villages has been established, and an agricul- 
tural 0-ffice National de Reconstitution has 
been organized; great things have already been 
Idealized from private organizations. This is the 
account of what one of them, the organization of 
National Nurseries, sent in 1914} to the front and 
into the liberated regions : 

6,717,575 cabbage plants 
1,980,000 turnip and rutabaga plants 
41,000 radish plants 
27,200 cauliflowers 
270,250 white beets 
5,340,500 leek plants 
1,836,800 chicory and endive plants 
104,500 celery plants 
105,000 tomato plants 
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FIGHTING FRANCE 

16,900 tetragon plants 
9,569,450 onion sprouts 
26,009,175 total plants of various kinds. 

These plants have been divided up into 2,436 
shipments, and they have sufficed to nourish not 
only the people who have returned to the devas- 
tated villages but also the troops at the front. 



A nation that is worn out and bled white has 
no colonies, or, if she has, these same colonies are 
likewise bloodless and worn out. The French 
colonial empire remains intact while the German 
colonial empire has disappeared from the face of 
the earth. The support the colonies brought to 
the mother country is wonderful and deserves a 
separate study on its own account. 

Here is the picture the celebrated German co- 
lonial empire offers. 

In 1914) Germany possessed a colonial empire 
two million square kilometers in area. It repre- 
sented approximately four times the area of the 
German Empire, and before the war its exports 
amounted to about one hundred millions of francs 

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SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

or twenty-five millions of dollars. There were 
German Southwest Africa, 35,000 square kilo- 
meters in extent, with 1,750 kilometers of rail- 
roads, with its copper and diamond mines, its 
metals which were worth commercially thirty- 
seven millions of marks in 1911; German East 
Africa, twice as big as the German Empire, hav- 
ing 1,225 kilometers of railroads, with its harbors 
where nine hundred and thirty-three merchant 
ships had touched in 1911 ; German New Guinea, 
as large as two- thirds of Prussia, with its rich 
deposits of gold and coal, its maritime commerce 
of 240,000 tons; the Samoan Islands, one single 
port of which, Apia, was visited by one hundred 
and ten steamers in a year; Tsing^Tao which, in 
1911, had exported 32,500,000 marks' worth of 
merchandise, whose maritime interest was repre- 
sented by five hundred and ninety steamers which 
carried a million tons of freight. All that has 
fallen away; all that is actually in the hands of 
the Allies. 

The conquest was difficult; it was finished only 
in 1916. An order of the day of General Ayme- 

K)9 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

rich, commander-in-chief of the troops which con- 
quered Kameroon, points with brief eloquence to 
some of the difficulties which have been overcome : 

Officers, Europeans and troops who are natives 
of Africa and Belgian Congo. 

At the cost of hardship and unheard-of efforts, 
you have just wrenched from the Germans one of 
their best and richest colonies. 

Followed without a minute's respite from pos- 
session to possession, the enemy has been obliged 
to abandon the last bit of Kameroon. For eight- 
een months you have experienced the torrid heat 
of the days and the cold dampness of the nights 
without a change, 3^ou have been under the tor- 
rential equatorial rains, you have traversed im- 
passable forests and fetid marshes, you have with- 
out a rest taken the enemy's positions one after 
another, leaving dead in each one a number of 
your comrades. Lacking food and often without 
munitions, with your clothing in tatters, you have 
continued your glorious march without complaint 
or murmur, until you have attained the end for 
which you set out. 

In this conquest France played a large part, 
just as was the case in the conquest of Togoland, 

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SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

with her Senegalese Tirailleurs, the famous Tirail- 
leurs, so much decried and discussed before the 
war, who were to win the admiration of the Eng- 
lish generals under whose orders they fought. 

It is appropriate to cite here the order of the 
day of the commanding officer of these troops, 
because it shows us a side of the colonial wars, 
about which little has been said : 

An English detachment under the command of 
Lieutenant Thomson having been strongly re- 
pulsed in an attack on the post at Kamina, was re- 
inforced by a group of the Senegalese Tirailleurs 
made up of a sergeant, two corporals, and four- 
teen Blacks. From the beginning of the encounter 
at eleven o'clock, the mixed detachment found it- 
self exposed to a lively fire from positions that 
were solidly established and supported by mitrail- 
leuses. After the artillery had commenced firing 
Lieutenant Thomson, considering that the prep- 
aration was sufficient, bravely led his troop on to 
the attack. This courageous initiative failed un- 
der a severe fire from fifty meters of German 
trenches. Lieutenant Thomson fell mortally 
wounded. However, the Senegalese Tirailleurs, 
faithful to that tradition which has already proved 

111 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

its value in our colonial epic by such famous ex- 
ploits, refused to abandon the body of the un- 
known leader their captain had given them and 
continued to hold their position. When the fight 
was over and the enemy was in flight, the bodies of 
the sergeant, the two corporals, and of nine dead 
and four wounded Tirailleurs were found stretched 
out alongside the English officer and an under offi- 
cer who was also English. In the very spot where 
they were found, their tomb surrounds that of 
Lieutenant Thomson. United in death, they still 
seem to watch over the strange officer — unknown 
to them — for whom they sacrificed their lives be- 
cause their leader had given them orders to do so. 

Of the German colonial empire, four times as 
big as the fatherland, not a spot exists that is not 
in the hands of the Allies today. England holds 
the greater part; Japan has Tsing-Tao; France 
a considerable part of the African possessions. 

Now let us look at the picture the French 
colonial empire offers. 

In 1914 France ruled, in the north of Africa, 
over five and a half millions of natives in Algiers, 
two millions in Tunis and four millions in Mo- 
rocco. When the war broke out there was not a 

112 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

single German in Morocco who was not certain 
that the natives would rise in revolt against 
France. 

"Not a single Frenchman," wrote, in peace 
times, the correspondent of the Cologne Gazette y 
"should escape alive." The German Government 
was convinced of the fact that the revolt of the 
inhabitants and the massacre of the French would 
be followed by an appeal of all the Moroccans 
for the intervention of the Kaiser. But nothing 
of the sort took place. In Algiers the most per- 
fect calm continued to reign; in Tunis there was 
a little trouble that was soon suppressed; in Mo- 
rocco there was a man, diplomat and soldier at 
the same time, who was able to keep peace and 
hold the country firm to France. He was Gen- 
eral Lyautey. 

During the early days of August, 1914, the 
question was raised whether or not it would be 
necessary to abandon the outposts in the interior 
of Morocco and withdraw toward the coast cities. 
General Lyautey declared that he would abandon 
nothing and advised the French Government to 

113 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

that effect. He sent troops, the famous Moroc- 
can regiments, the best fighting units there were 
in 1914, to the battle fields of Flanders, receiving 
in exchange territorial divisions recruited for the 
most part from the Midi. However, with these 
territorial divisions General Lyautey assured the 
safety of all that portion of the empire that was 
in his care; he finished the operations he had com- 
menced ; he maintained French prestige and, some 
months later on, he found means to open at Casa- 
blanca a Moroccan exposition which showed the 
marvelous work that had been accomplished in 
that country — French for a few years only. 

The French colonies not only remained incom- 
parably calm and peaceful but they also made a 
marvelous effort in coming to the aid of the 
mother country both with men and with their 
commerce. 

M. Ernest Roume, Governor General of the 
Colonies, in charge at the war's beginning of the 
government of Indo-China, sent to France more 
than sixty thousand native soldiers and military 
workers in eighteen months. They were recruited 

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SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

from the Asiatic possessions of France. In Sene- 
gal, in Soudan and in Morocco men volunteered by 
hundreds of thousands. Moroccans, Kabyles and 
blacks came to fight by the side of the French 
troops on the Champagne and Lorraine fronts. 

Besides, North Africa largely took care of the 
feeding of France. 

In 1914 the cereal crop had been notably de- 
ficient in Algiers and especially in Tunis. How- 
ever, Algeria did not hesitate to give the mother 
land all the grain she asked for; 50,000 quintals 
of wheat and 500,000 quintals of barley and oats 
were thus hastened to continental France, and in 
addition, 40,000 quintals of wheat went to Cor- 
sica and 130,000 to Paris. In 1915 the colonies 
made an even better showing: Algeria furnished 
France with 1,625,000 quintals of wheat, 918- 
000 quintals of barley, and 77,000 quintals of 
oats. In 1916 this figure was passed and the 
total exports amounted to four million quintals 
of grains. As for Morocco, it exported in 1914, 
90,000 quintals of wheat and 130,000 quintals of 
barley; in 1915 it exported 200,000 quintals of 

115 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

wheat and a million quintals of barley; in 1916 
it exported more than two million quintals of 
grains. Add to that the 900,000 sheep Algeria 
furnished for the French commissariat and more 
than 40,000 sheep furnished to the English com- 
missariat to feed the Hindoo troops stationed at 
Marseilles. Then add in the cattle exported from 
Algeria and Morocco by the thousands, add for 
Algeria the wines and the vegetables, and for 
Tunis the olive oil. In 1916 the confederation 
of Algerian winegrowers gave the French poilus 
fifty thousand hectoliters of wine. 

Everywhere in the colonies buildings have been 
built, agriculture has continued, pubHc works 
have been constructed. In the midst of war Al- 
geria has opened up railroads ; Tunis has opened 
the line from Sfax to Gabes ; Morocco the lines 
from Casablanca to Fez and from the Algerian 
frontier to Taza. 

General Lyautey said, "A workshop is worth a 
battahon in Morocco." 

Workshops have been opened everywhere. 
There was never so much work done. The colonial 

116 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

empire was never more prosperous, more active 
and more glorious. 

A nation that is worn out and bled white has 
passed the stage where it can come to the aid of 
others. In her death agony, she has no more 
than her own strength to last her during the last 
hours. France has been able to come to the aid 
of the other Allies. She has lent them a strong 
helping hand, she has been able to save them from 
total extinction. French troops have fought and 
are still fighting on all the battle fronts ; in Italy, 
the Balkans, Palestine and Central Africa. It is 
almost to France alone and to France especially 
that the salvage of the remnant of the Serbian 
Army has been due. 

We remember what happened in September, 
1915. At the time when the dual offensive was at- 
tempted in Artois and in Champagne, the German 
Armies invaded Poland, Volhynia, Lithuania and 
Courland, delivered Austrian Galicia and com- 
menced to submerge Serbia beneath their innu- 
merable legions. Invaded by three armies, the 

117 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

German, Austrian and Bulgarian, all of them 
amply supplied with heavy artillery and asphixi- 
ating gas, poor little Serbia was doomed before- 
hand. But, tenacious to the end, her heroic de- 
fenders preferred to leave their country rather 
than submit to a hated yoke. Step by step the 
Serbians, always facing the enemy, retreated to 
the sea. It was a terrible tragedy. Their retreat 
will remain a matter of legend, like that of the 
Ten Thousand under Xenophon. As they re- 
treated, the Serbians called, in their despair, for 
help. 

Who went to Serbia's aid? It was not Russia, 
whose armies were quite worn out. It was not 
England, who feared an attack on Egypt and who 
was stiU fighting at the Dardanelles. It was not 
Italy, whose special efforts were directed towards 
preventing the junction of Austria with Greece, 
and who was satisfied with establishing herself 
at Valona and thus driving a wedge between her 
two rivals on the Adriatic coast. 

But France, France who is represented as worn 

118 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

out and bled white, heard Serbia's call for help 
and decided to respond to it. 

Supplies were first landed at San Giovanni di 
Medua and Antivari in the smaller French boats. 
But it was soon evident that these supplies would 
be insufficient and that the Serbs could not main- 
tain their positions in the Adriatic ports even 
with French help from the sea. The complete 
evacuation of an entire army, piece by piece, had 
to be undertaken. The transporting of entire 
Serbia beyond the seas, to another country, had 
to be considered. Where were they to go.'' Where 
were the thousands of worn out soldiers, of sick 
and wounded men, to be transported.'' 

Once again France answered. France held 
Tunis, France held Bizerta. Tunis and Bizerta 
would shield temporarily the remains of Serbia. 
From the end of November, 1915, the smaller 
French ships, torpedo boats, trawlers and trans- 
ports made the trip from Durazzo to San Gio- 
vanni di Medua to embark the Serbian Army. 
Great steamers, such as the Nataly Sinm, and 
Armenie, and a flotilla of armored cruisers fol- 

119 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

lowed them. Thirteen thousand men were trans- 
ported in this fashion. 

But the situation grew worse. The Serbs along 
the seacoasts were pressed harder and harder by 
the Austrians and by Albanian bands. Besides, 
the transporting to Tunis was too slow when the 
progress of the enemy was considered. Finally 
the appearance of typhus and cholera rendered 
more dangerous the removal of the unfortunate 
troops to a great distance. A new plan was ar- 
ranged. The remaining Serbs were to be trans- 
ported not into Tunis, which was so far away, but 
to a land as near as possible to the scene of dis- 
aster. Corfu was there; Corfu, only sixty miles 
away from the farthest point of debarkation; 
Corfu, whose climate was marvelously suited to 
the recovery of ^ick men; Corfu which offered a 
ver}^ safe harbor. It was decided to occupy 
Corfu, prepare the island, transport the entire 
Serbian Army thither and assure that this army 
would be built up there. And France was charged 
with carrying out this operation. 

On the seventh of January, 1916, the first 

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SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

French organization of ten trawlers set out from 
Malta to make a preliminary reconnoissance 
around Corfu, to drag for mines and to clear out 
the submarines. A second flotilla followed it 
forty-eight hours later. On the eighth of Janu- 
ary the armor'ed cruisers Edgar Quinet, Wal- 
deck-Ro2isseau, Ernest RenaUy Jules Ferry and 
five torpedo boats, which were located at Bizer- 
ta, received orders to embark a battalion of Alpine 
chasseurs with their arms, baggage and mules 
and to take up their positions to be ready at the 
first signal 

On the night of the tenth, the French consul 
at Corfu woke up the Greek prefect in order to 
announce to him the imminent arrival of our 
squadron and what it was going to do. After 
he had received the formal protest of this func- 
tionary, he went down to the port, where there 
was no longer any doubt in anyone's mind of 
what was going to happen. With him went guides 
and automobiles to finish everything quickly be- 
fore the Germans could offer any opposition. 
Some minutes later, on time at the rendezvous 

1^1 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

agreed upon, the French cruisers came into tl)e 
harbor and immediately disembarked their con- 
tingent of Alpine Chasseurs. Before daybreak 
the principal vantage points as well as the most 
important positions on the island were occupied. 
Suspected persons were seized in their beds, a 
doubtful post of T. S. F. was seized also. Corfu, 
which went to sleep half German, woke up entirely 
French to the tune of the martial music that was 
to inform the inhabitants of the little change that 
had taken place over night. 

The question remained of AchiUewn, the prop- 
erty of William of Germany, which was about nine 
miles from the city. If Achilleion had been a 
French property and German soldiers had paid 
a visit, what pillage, what defilement, what orgies 
there would have been! 

But Achilleion was a German property, and the 
French have a method of procedure that is pecu- 
liarly their own. This is what happened, ac- 
cording to the narrative of a young naval officer 
who was on the spot: 

At four oMock in the morning an automobile 

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SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

set. out from the dock, carrying a squad of twelve 
marine fusilliers under the command of one of the 
ship's lieutenants. A half hour later he presented 
himself at the gate of the palace and demanded 
that he be admitted. There was no response. He 
was insistent. Finally a door opened and an 
angry voice cried out in the darkness: "This isn't 
the time for visitors." For the owner, who found 
that there are no such things as small profits, 
permitted a visit for the sum of two francs per per- 
son. Surprised, the occupant of the palace sub- 
mitted, and our detachment entered AchiLleiorty 
whose occupants it assembled — the watchman and 
two red-haired chambermaids — en deshabille^ also 
a mechanic and an entomologist who wore spec- 
tacles. Pale with fear, the latter threw himself on 
his knees before the officer. *'If I must die, I ask 
that it may be here," said he. He was left in 
peace. A company of the Chasseurs arrived and 
the marines, with their lanterns in their hands, 
went back to the ships. The Tricolor floated over 
the Kaiser's villa, which was to become a hospital 
for the Serbs. 

At eleven o'clock in the morning it was all over, 
and the French cruisers put out to sea on the re- 
turn trip to Bizerta. 

But the easiest thing had been done. The most 

1£3 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

difficult was about to begin. It was not only a 
question of occupying Corfu; it was also a mat- 
ter of arranging to receive a worn-out and deci- 
mated army. It was a difficult task that many 
would have judged out of the question. Every- 
thing was lacking; there was nothing on hand. 

A writer on naval matters, who has been the 
historian of the French Navy in this war, M. Emile 
Vedel, has painted in the pages of Illustration 
an unheard-of and unique picture of what this 
preparation of Corfu consisted: 

It was nothing less than a question of improvis- 
ing all means that were necessary for disembark- 
ing; gangways, landing stairs, roads to and from 
various points on the island where the expected 
troops were to be concentrated; of uniting and 
collecting together the numerous boats — large and 
small — eighteen tugs (among them the Marsouin^ 
Rove, Iskeuly MarseUlais H, Audacieuw, Requm), 
twenty-seven smaller boats, nine barges, and a 
dozen mahonnes and small craft of all sizes, with- 
out counting the supply ships, floating tanks, un- 
loading cranes and so forth — ^which the rapid un- 
loading and revictualing of the new arrivals de- 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

manded; of isolating the sick who were infected 
with typhus and cholera ; in a word, of putting on 
their feet the diverse offices that come under the 
heading of direction of the port, all the machinery 
of which was yet to be created. At the same time 
it was necessary to maintain and repair the booms 
of the harbor, to test the channels, make arrange- 
ments concerning piloting, anchorage, and new 
supplies of water, provisions and coal for the al- 
ways hurried transports which arrived, unloaded 
and sailed away at all hours of the day and night ; 
constantly to clear out and drag the waters near 
the island; establish observation posts around it, 
station batteries in suitable positions, and finally 
to protect the channels around Corfu and the Al- 
banian coast, in which the English aided us effec- 
tively by sending a hundred drifters (a sort of 
little fishing boat which we call "cordiers" at 
Boulogne), which, beating against the wind under 
full sail, dragged a cable a thousand meters long 
to snare submarines. Tlianks to a pair of float- 
ing docks, which were placed between the extreme 
end of Corfu and the neighboring coast, a distance 
of but two or three kilometers, our vessels were 
soon in position, in a line thirty miles in length 
so that they could execute all the movements 
necessary for the landing of the Serbs and also 
have gun drill, launch torpedoes and sea planes, 

125 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

and perform the rest of the maneuvers that are 
indispensable. 

Furthermore, fresh water in sufficient quanti- 
ties had to be procured. For if the springs on the 
island could supply eighty thousand inhabitants, 
they now had to triple their output and give out 
a far greater supply to meet the demand of one 
hundred and fifty thousand more mouths. Every 
bit of flour had to come from outside, from Italy, 
France or England since Corfu has very few re- 
sources and we did not wish to encounter the hos- 
tility of a population to which it was necessary 
for us to show firmness more than once. The most 
recalcitrant were forced to give in, not without 
ceasing to rob us very much in the dealings they 
had with us. Oranges went up to ten francs a 
dozen, and small shopkeepers realized fortunes by 
doing money changing at fantastic rates. 

And all that will furnish only a very incomplete 
idea of the innumerable obligations the aquatic 
anthill, from an industrial and military stand- 
point, which is called a naval base, has to meet. 

On the ninth of January, 1916, the situation 
of the Serbian Army was precisely as follows: 
In the neighborhood of San Giovanni di Medua 
there were twelve hundred officers, twenty-six 
thousand foot soldiers, seven thousand horses and 

1S6 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

two thousand cattle ; at Durazzo there were thirty- 
six hundred officers, sixty-nine thousand soldiers, 
twenty thousand horses and four thousand cat- 
tle; on the roads that led to Valona some fifty 
thousand men including officers, two thousand 
horses and three hundred cattle. 

In these three principal groups were forty-one 
field pieces, the glorious remainder of the Serbian 
artillery. 

Add to that twenty-two thousand Austrian 
prisoners whom the Serbs carried along with them 
in their exodus towards the coast and also the 
pitiable troop of refugees, sick men, old men, 
women, children who, desiring at any cost to es- 
cape slavery and servitude, followed the retreat- 
ing army. 

The evacuation of this indomitable people was 
made at San Giovanni di Medua. The soldiers 
were sent to Corfu. The civilians were sent to 
Algiers and Tunis, the Austrian prisoners to 
Sardinia. But where were the typhoid and the 
cholera patients to be transported.'* No one 
wanted them; and in this stampede of a people, 

127 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

cholera and typhus had made their appearance 
and spread with alarming rapidity. A certain 
number of cholera patients had been taken to 
Brindisi; and everyone, naturally, refused to take 
them in. 

Since this was the case, a French trawler, the 
Verdun, commanded by Lieutenant d'Aubarede, 
brought the sick to Corfu. And, as M. Emile 
Vedel tells it, this was perhaps one of the most 
beautiful episodes of our navy's acti^dty, for 
there are few deaths as hideous as that to which 
they exposed themselves in taking in their arms 
poor beings touched with a malady essentially so 
contagious, and so dirty and covered with vermin 
that they made everyone shudder. With precau- 
tion and care that brothers do not always have 
for their own brothers, these near-corpses were 
taken to Corfu, where doctors and nurses from 
the French Navy saved some of them and made 
the end more easy for the rest. 

In twenty-two days everything was almost over. 
The troops at San Giovanni and Valona and Du- 
razzo had been evacuated, as had the Austrian 

128 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

prisoners. All the money of the Serbian treasury 
had been transported to Marseilles in the cruiser 
Ernest Renan, It amounted to about eight hun- 
dred million francs. 

However, on the twentieth of January, about 
two thousand men still remained at San Giovanni 
di Medua. There were also a certain number of 
field pieces. After so many men and guns had 
been saved, were these to be abandoned? No. 
Everything must be saved. The last man must 
be saved and the last gun must be saved, whatever 
may be the risk, the fatigue and the hard work. 

On the morning of the twentieth of January, 
Captain Cacqueray, commanding the French naval 
forces, had two young naval officers of the French 
fleet come aboard his ship, the Marceaw, Ensigns 
Couillaud and Auge, who commanded the little 
trawlers Petrel and Marie-Rose. He ordered them 
to return once more to San Giovanni and bring 
back with them all they could. 

"You must succeed and you will succeed," Cap- 
tain Cacqueray said simply. 

Some few minutes later the two trawlers were 

129 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

out in the Adriatic, headed for San Giovanni. 
Here we must quote Ensign Auge's words. He 
commanded the Marie-RosCy and we must be satis- 
fied with citing from the eloquent brevity of the 
ship's log: 

From the peaceful docks of Brindisi, we passed 
through the winding channel of the outer port and 
then out of the harbor, gliding between the buoys. 
Then the mine fields were to be traversed, although 
the night was black and foggy. As we approached 
the Albanian coast the wind freshened, and in a 
veritable tempest, with hail and icy rain we en- 
tered the Gulf of Drin, whose water is very turbid. 
More watchful than ever, since submarines had 
been sighted in the neighborhood, we finally ar- 
rived at Medua. Almost blocked off by the sand 
bars, the little harbor was further encumbered by 
a dozen wrecks, boats which the Austrians had 
sunk. The question was where to pass through 
this mess, on the top of the water, with masts and 
spars pointing every way. After having rounded 
the line of mines and the Brindisi, an Italian ves- 
sel that had struck a mine some days before, we 
made the port. Ten houses and a wretched wharf 
on worm-eaten piling at the end of a funnel of 
mountains with terrible rocks is all there is of 
Medua. 

130 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

An empty sailboat was moored to the end of 
the wharf, which facilitated our operations. The 
Petrel, which was of lighter draft than my boat, 
managed to get alongside and, by vigorous efforts, 
we were able to join her. Ashore there were sol- 
diers in muddy clothes and worn-out shoes. The 
gangway and the sailboat were soon filled by a 
chilly cold wind, which tried to blow it offshore and 
which nothing could restrain. It was impossible 
to locate any responsible person and out of the 
question to make one's self understood. Everyone 
thought only of escaping from that Hell. Finally 
some Serbian officers came up who succeeded 
somewhat in controlling their impatient troops. 
They made us bring up the first cannon, which was 
pushed over the shaking planks of the wharf. With 
great effort and by the use of triple tackles the 
gun was got aboard the Petrel, and the carriage 
and wheels on the Marw-Rose, whose hatch was 
wider. The beginning was slow, but, after the 
second cannon, the embarking went along 
smoothly. 

There was not enough time. Everyone 
stamped in the mud. With the completely washed 
out Serbian uniforms mixed the brilliant colors 
of those of the Montenegrin guard. Seated on a 
stone. King Nicholas sat stoically in the falling 
rain, awaiting the arrival of the Italian torpedo 

131 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

boat that was to place itself under his orders. 
Soldiers from the French mission arrived and did 
police duty. The radio-operators from the Ital- 
ian post arrived and put their baggage on board. 
An officer of the Serbian Army was there with all 
the state archives. A crowd of people instinctive- 
ly pressed towards us and got mixed up with the 
soldiers who were supposed to keep order. In 
spite of the tempest which thwarted everything, 
we managed to embark eighteen .75 guns and three 
100 howitzers, as well as a hundred cases of pro- 
jectiles. The weather grew more dreadful, with 
hail stones in the icy rain. Blows were necessary 
to prevent the crowding aboard of that mob of 
people whom neither shouts nor threats could 
stop. We allowed as many as possible to embark 
- — about a hundred on the Petrel and twice as 
many with us — Serbs, Montenegrins and Allies, 
of all classes and conditions, and, despairingly we 
shoved off to stop the crowd that remained. We 
^ere the last hope of these poor people — there were 
ibout fifteen hundred of them, whose only hope now 
was to face the frightful paths, marshes and swol- 
len rivers that separated them from Durazzo. 

Night was falling; there remained only time 
to get away. Cases of preserves were quickly 
opened. All our bread and biscuits were used, 
and some bowls of boiling tea comforted our 

132 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

guests. But leaving the harbor, the sea grew 
heavier and torrents of spray put the finishing 
touch to the inextricable disorder that prevailed 
aboard ship. The storm stayed with us until we 
made Brindisi, where we arrived at seven o'clock on 
the morning of the twenty-second. When Italy was 
sighted, the tiredness and discouragement dis- 
appeared as if by magic. Hand clappings, praise 
of France, promises of victory and of revenge, 
and absurd efforts to disembark everything at 
once — passengers and material. (Journal of En- 
sign Auge, Commander of the Marie-Rose.) 

Is that all ? No ; it is not. For if French ef- 
fort is limitless, the tonnage of the trawlers is 
not. And, in spite of every effort, they were un- 
able to get everyone aboard. Down there in the 
mud at Medua some Serbs still waited, turning 
anxious eyes towards the high seas to see whether 
or not the tricolor would appear on the horizon. 
. . . Well, it did reappear, for France never gives 
up the fight. The French motto here, as every- 
where else, was "to the bitter end." On the twen- 
ty-fourth of January the Petrel and the Marie- 
Rose started on the final trip. Will they arrive 
in time.'' Probably not. In the mountains that 

133 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

surround San Giovanni rifle shots and the rattle 
of mitrailleuses were heard; the road to Alessio 
was deserted, the beach seemed deserted, Medua 
harbor was covered with wreckage of aU sorts, ren- 
dering navigation impossible. However, the tiny 
craft entered the harbor and approached the 
shore. Finally they saw some Serbs there. The 
news was as disturbing as possible. The Aus- 
trians were only a few kilometers off. There was 
fighting on the outskirts of the town. The last 
able-bodied Serbs struggled manfully to hold off 
the Austrian advance guard, which pressed them 
hard. Not a minute was to be lost if a last sal- 
vage was to be made. 

After a brief consultation, the two young com- 
manders decided to take off everyone in their old 
boats, aided by a huge lighter which they took 
in tow. A grave responsibility if the weather 
did not hold; but the man who risks nothing will 
gain nothing. 

They worked with feverish haste. The hope of 
not being abandoned gave wings to the weak. By 
four o*clock in the afternoon everything was prac- 

134 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 

tically ready . . . four "seventy-fives," ten artil- 
lery caissons, two radio outfits, a thousand new 
rifles, hundreds of cases of shells, cartridges and 
grenades and likewise large quantities of harness 
were loaded on the trawlers. All the men who were 
in the town, its outskirts or on the beach were as- 
sembled and embarked on the boats. Not one 
was left behind. This time, safe from the rifles 
in the distant mountains, everyone was saved. 

At four-fifty in the afternoon [writes Ensign 
Auge] our little boats cleared the harbor for the 
last time and made the open sea. Suddenly we 
see a trail of foam hastening on us with a mad 
rush. It started three or four hundred meters off 
on our right. There is a lightning flash and we 
see the torpedo cross our bows, too low, fortu- 
nately. A submarine has tried to attack us but 
has missed. We describe a great circle in order 
to avoid a second attack. Fortunately night falls 
to end the chase, and we make for the Italian 
coast. Although the sea is smooth, the third boat 
is lurching terribly. About midnight I hear ter- 
rible cries from this boat. It is dark as pitch and 
impossible to make out anything in the darkness. 
The cries continue: sparks burst forth. Some- 
thing is thrown into the sea. It is impossible to 

135 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

know what is happening. So much the worse. 
The most dangerous thing would be to stop. Let 
us go on. 

They went on and finally arrived in sight of 
Italy the next morning. The incident of the night 
before had been a little thing which had started a 
panic on board the boat. Little by little the roofs 
and towers of Brindisi appeared in the distance. 
The entire squadron of Allied ships was there, 
ranged in battle formation. When they saw the 
two little boats which were bringing in the last 
Serbs with their last guns, they rendered military 
honors to the heroic saviors, the crews cheering 
and the colors saluting. Supreme and un- 
precedented homage was rendered two nations : 
France and Serbia. 

• •••••• 

In January, 1918, M. Vesnitch, Serbian Minis- 
ter to France, on a mission to the United States, 
during an after-dinner speech, in a voice that did 
not conceal his emotion and with a different man- 
ner from his usual downcast one, told some of the 
details of this Passion. And he added: 

136 



SUFFERING BUT NOT BLED WHITE 



ii^ 



'We are grateful to everyone, but Serbia's 
heart will remain attached through all centuries 
to come to France." 

I repeat these words, which are France's sweet- 
est reward, because they attest in history what 
France, the nation "worn out and bled white" 
has done to save and succor her little ally. 

Finally let me say that the men are wrong who 
believe France is without strength and resources. 
Beneath her torn garments, in rags, under flesh 
that is cruelly bruised, there beats a virile heart 
which fights on and on. And there is young, red 
blood which still flows and is always ready to flow 
for the immortal principles of Liberty, Justice 
and Humanity. 



IV 

THE WAR AIMS OF FEANCE 

A FRENCH statesman, Mr. Louis Barthou, 
has summed up the War aims of France 
in the three words: "Restitution, Rep- 
aration, Guarantees." 

Restitution means the surrender of all occu- 
pied territories, of the territories occupied by 
force during forty-seven months, as well as the 
territories occupied by force during forty-seven 
years. Between the five departments forming 
Flanders-Argonne and the five departments form- 
ing Alsace-Lorraine, France is unable to make 
any distinction. France wants Metz back on the 
same ground upon which she wants Lille back. If 
Germany is to keep Metz she might as well keep 
Lille. Her claim to Strasbourg is not better than 
her claim to Cambrai. 

138 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

And this is a thing which "the man in the street" 
fails sometimes to understand. He says: "Yes, 
we know, Alsace-Lorraine was taken from France 
forty-seven years ago by violence, without the peo- 
ple of the occupied territories being consulted. 
But how did France acquire Alsace-Lorraine in 
previous times? Was it not also by force after 
successful wars? Is it not a fact that Alsace- 
Lorraine, in days of yore, belonged to Germany, 
and that, historically, Alsace is a German land?" 

No, it is precisely not a fact. It is the con- 
trary of a fact and of truth. And this must 
be made clear, once for all. 

When France demands Alsace-Lorraine, she 
does not do so because she will have some more 

departments in her geographical configuration, 
but because these territories belonged to France 
during centuries and centuries, because they were 
taken from France by force forty-seven years 
ago, because the people of these territories not 
only were never consulted, but also protested 
against Prussian domination — because, in a word, 
it is a question of right. 

139 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

In a speech, which he delivered on the 24th of 
January, 1918, before the Reichstag, Count von 
Hertling, the Imperial German Chancellor, ex- 
pressed himself as follows: 

Alsace-Lorraine comprises, as is known, for 
the most part purely German regions which by a 
century long of \doIence and illegality were sev- 
ered from the German Empire, until iinallj^ in 1779 
the French Revolution swallowed up the last 
remnant. Alsace and Lorraine then became 
French provinces. When in the war of 1870, we 
demanded back the district which had been crim- 
inally wrested from us, that was not a conquest of 
foreign territory but, rightly and properly speak- 
ing, what today is called disannexation. 

It is doubtful that Count von Hertling will 
ever leave in history the memory of a great Chan- 
cellor; but, if he does, it will be no doubt in the 
History of Ignorance and Falsehood. Never has 
a statesman in so few words uttered with such 
impudence so man}^ untruths ! 

Historically speaking, there are in Alsace-Lor- 
raine three parts : there is Lorraine, there is Al- 

140 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

sace, and there is the southern part of Alsace in- 
cluding the town of Mulhouse. 

As regards the town of Mulhouse, the question 
is most simple and clear. The town never, at any 
time, belonged to Germany or to the Germans. It 
belonged to Switzerland and, at the end of the 
18th century, during the French revolution, the 
town, after a referendum, decided to become 
French. A delegation was sent to Paris, to the 
French Parliament, then called the Conseil des 
Cinq-Cents, and the delegation expressed publicly, 
officially, the desire of Mulhouse to be part of the 
French territorj^ There was a deliberation, and 
unanimously the Conseil des Cinq-Cents voted a 
motion couched in the following terms: "T/i^ 
French Republic accepts the vow of the citizens 
of Mulhouse J^ 

A few weeks later the French authorities, among 
scenes of unparalleled enthusiasm, made their en- 
trv into the town, and the flaff of Mulhouse was 
wrapped up in a tricolor box bearing the inscrip- 
tion: "The Republic of Mulhouse rests in the 
bosom of the French Republic." 

141 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

Alsace — the rest of Alsace — became French 
in 1648, more than two centuries before the war 
of 1870. It became French according to a treaty. 
The treaty was signed by the Austrian Emperor, 
because Alsace belonged to the Austrian Imperial 
Family. And it is not without interest to quote 
an article (article 75) of the treaty: 

The Emperor cedes to the King of France for- 
ever, in perpetuuTn, without any reserve, with full 
jurisdiction and sovereignty, all the Alsatian ter- 
ritory. The Austrian Emperor gives it to the 
King of France in such a way that no other Em- 
peror, in the future, will ever have any power in 
any time to affirm any right on these territories. 

When today one reads that treaty, one has the 
impression that more than two centuries ago the 
Austrian Emperor had already a sort of appre- 
hension that later on another Emperor would in- 
terfere in the matter and create mischief! 

Fifty-three years after that treaty, the Prus- 
sians, who dislike seeing anything in some one's 
else possession, tried to recover Alsace. Their 

own ambassador tried to dissuade them, and in 

142 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

1701 Count Schmettau, ambassador of Prussia in 
Paris, wrote to his king: 

''We ca/nnot take Alsace, because it is well 
known that her inhabit ants are more French than 
the Parisians, . . ." 

Could anything answer better the affirmation 
that "Alsatians are of German tendency?" 

Lorraine became French in 1552, more than 
three centuries before the war of 1870. Lorraine 
became French not after a war and as the result 
of a conquest, but according to a treaty signed 
by all the Protestant Princes of Germany, in 
which we find the following sentence, which is 
really worthy of meditation: ''We find just that 
the King of Franc e, as promptli/ as possible, 
takes possession of the towns of Tout, Metz, 
and Verdun, where the German language has never 
been used,^^ So that the Germans themselves put 
on the same line the towns of Metz, Toul, and Ver- 
dun, and recognized that the town of Metz was 
not German. 

All this is extremely simple and clear. What 
happened several centuries later is equally clear. 

143 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

When, in 1871, on February 16th, the deputies 
of Alsace-Lorraine learned that their provinces 
would be given up to Germany, they assembled, 
and in an historical document which was signed 
by all of them — there were thirty-six — they pro- 
tested in the following terms: 

Alsace and Lorraine cannot be alienated. To- 
day, before the whole world, they proclaim that 
they want to remain French. Europe cannot 
allow or ratify the annexation of Alsace and Lor- 
raine. Europe cannot allow a people to be seized 
like a flock of sheep. Europe cannot remain deaf 
to the protest of a whole population. Therefore, 
we declare in the name of our population, in the 
name of our children and of our descendants, that 
we are considering any treaty which gives us up 
to a foreign power as a treaty null and void, 
and we will eternally revindicate the right of dis- 
posing of ourselves and of remaining French, 

And, three years later, in January, 1874, when 
for the first time Alsace and Lorraine had to elect 
deputies, they reiterated the same protest. They 
elected fifteen new deputies ; some were Protes- 
tants, some were Catholics, one of them was the 

144 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

Bishop of Strasbourg, but they unanimously 
signed a declaration which was read at the Tribune 
of the German Reichstag. The declaration was 
the following: 

In the name of all the people of Alsace-Lor- 
raine, we protest against the abuse of force of 
which our country is a victim. . . . Citizens hav- 
ing a soul and an intelligence are not mere goods 
that may be sold, or with which you may trade. 

The contract which annexed us to Germany is 
null and void. A contract is only valid when the 
two contractants had an entire freedom to sign it. 
France was not free when she signed such a con- 
tract. Therefore our electors want us to say 
that we consider ourselves as not bound by such 
a treaty, and they want us to affirm once more 
our right of disposing of ourselves. 

I beg to call the attention of the reader to two 
sentences of this protestation : 

"Europe cannot allow a people to be seized like 
a flock of sheep," wrote the deputies of 1871. 
"People are not mere goods which may be sold 
or with which you may trade," proclaimed the 
deputies of 1874. Now you will find, nearly word 

145 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

for word, the same thought expressed in the mes- 
sage of President Wilson to Congress, when he 
wrote : "No right exists anywhere to hand peoples 
about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they 
were property." 

That right does not exist, and it is because that 
right was outrageously violated in 1871 that 
France wants Alsace-Lorraine to come back tc 
her. It is because, in 1871, Right has been 
wronged that today Right must be reinstated. 

Some people have spoken of a referendum. Why 
a referendum? Was there any referendum in 
1871? And how could there be a referendum? 
How could you include in this referendum the hun- 
dreds of thousands of Alsatians who have fled from 
German domination? How could you exclude from 
this referendum the hundreds of thousands of 
Germans who have come to Alsace? 

The referendum was rendered by Mulhouse in 
1798. Will that town be obliged to vote again? 
And how many times will it be obliged to vote for 
France? The referendum was rendered by the 
whole of Alsace and Lorraine in 1871 and 1874, 

146 



THE WAR AIxMS OF FRANCE 

by their elected deputies, when they unanimously 
protested against the German annexation. 

It was rendered twenty years ago by the census 
which was taken by the Germans themselves in 
Alsace. According to that census, in 1895, not- 
withstanding the fact that the teaching of French 
was prohibited in the public schools, there were 
160,000 people in Alsace speaking French. And 
five years later, in 1900, according to another 
census there were S00,000 people in Alsace 
speaking French, And of these 200,000 people, 
there were more than 52,000 children. 

The referendum was also rendered by Alsatians 
who, before this war, engaged themselves in the 
French Army, and became officers. According to 
the official statistics of the French War Depart- 
ment, there were in 1914 in the French Army 20 
generals, 145 superior officers, and 400 ordinary 
officers of Alsatian origin. On the other side, 
in the German Army in 1914, there were four of- 
ficers of Alsatian origin. 

And finally the referendum was rendered only 
one year before the present war, in 1913, when 

147 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

Herr von Jagow, then Prefect of Police in Berlin, 
made the following extraordinary declaration: 
"We Germans are obliged in Alsace to behave 
ourselves as if we were in an enemy's coun- 
try. . . ." What better referendum could you wish 
than such an admission by a German statesman? 

Moreover, the question of Alsace-Lorraine is 
not only a French question, but also an inter- 
national question. It is not only France who has 
sworn to herself to recover Alsace-Lorraine — it 
is all the Allies who have sworn to France that 
she should recover it. 

"We mean to stand by the French democracy 
to the death," solemnl}^ declared Mr. Lloyd-George 
on the 5th of January, 1918, "in the demand they 
make for a reconsideration of the great wrong 
of 1871, when, without any regard to the wishes 
of the population, two French provinces were torn 
from the side of France and incorporated in the 
German Empire." 

And, three days later, using nearly the same 
words, President Wilson, in his luminous message 
to Congress, said: ^^The wrong done to France by 

148 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

Prussia m 1871^ in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, 
which has unsettled the peace of the world for 
nearly fifty years should he righted , in order that 
peace may once more he jnade secure in the interest 
of all" 

All the statesmen who have spoken since the be- 
ginning of the war in the name of the Allied Pow- 
ers have attested that this war is not only a strug- 
gle for the liberty of nations and the respect due 
to nationalities, but also an effort toward definite 
peace. Their words only appeared fit for stir- 
ring up the enthusiasm of the crowds, and forti- 
fying their will of sacrifice, because they gave ex- 
pression to their feehngs and prayers. If they 
are forgotten by those who uttered them they will 
be remembered by those who heard and treasured 
them. 

In September, 1914, Winston Churchill said: 
"We want this war to remodel the map of Europe 
according to the principle of nationalities, and 
the real wish of the people living in the contested 
territories. After so much bloodshed we wish for 
a peace which will free races, and restore the in- 

149 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

tegrity of nations. . . . Let us have done with 
the armaments, the fear of strain, intrigues, and 
the perpetual threat of the horrible present crisis. 
Let us make the regulation of European conflicts 
just and natural." The French republic, of one 
mind with the Allies, proclaimed through its au- 
thorized representatives that this war is a war 
of deliverance. "France," said Mr. Stephen 
Pichon, Foreign Minister, "will not lay down arms 
before having shattered Prussian militarism, so 
as to be able to rebuild on a basis of justice a re- 
generated Europe." And Mr. Paul Deschanel, 
the President of the Chamber, continued: "The 
French are not only defending their soil, their 
homes, the tombs of their ancestors, their sacred 
memories, their ideal works of art and faith and 
all the graceful, just, and beautiful things their 
genius has lavished forth : they are defending, too, 
the respect of treaties^ the independence of Eu- 
rope, and human freedom. We want to know if 
all the effort of conscience during centuries will 
lead to its slavery, if millions of men are to be 
taken, given up, herded at the other side of a fron- 

150 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

tier and condemned to fight for their conquerors 
and masters against their country, their families, 
and their brothers. . . . The world wishes to live 
at last, Europe to breathe, and the nations mean 
to dispose freely of themselves." 

These engagements will be kept. But they will 
have been kept only when Alsace-Lorraine — the 
Belgium of 1871, as Rabbi Stephen Wise has 
called it — ^has been returned to France. Then, 
and only then, will there be real peace. Then, 
and only then, will the "Testament" of Paul De- 
roulede have been executed : 

When our war victorious is o'er. 
And our country has won back its rank. 
Then with the evils war brings in its train 
Will disappear the hatred the conqueror trails. 

Then our great France, full of love without spite 
Sowing fresh springing-corn 'neath her new-born 

laurels. 
Will welcome Work, father of Fortune, 
And sing Peace, mother of lengthy deeds. 

Then will come Peace, calm, serene, and awful. 
Crushing down arms, but upholding intellect; 
For we shall stand out as just-hearted conquerors. 
Only taking back what was robbed from us. 

151 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

And our nation, weary of mourning. 
Will soothe the living while praising the dead, 
And nevermore will we hear the name of battle 
And our children shall learn to unlearn hate. 

Just as France will not accept peace without 
restitution, she will not accept peace without rep- 
aration. 

Germany can never make reparation for all the 
ruin, all the destruction, all the sacrilege she has 
wrought. There can be no reparation for the 
Cathedral of Rheims, for the Hotel de Ville at 
Arras, for the deaths of thousands of innocent 
beings, for the slaughter of women and cliildren. 

But there can be reparation for the damage 
done to machinery. The treasures of art which, 
contrary to all law and right, Germany has taken 
into her own country, can be returned. They can 
return the funds illegally stolen from the vaults 
of municipalities, banks and public societies. They 
can pay off the receipts which they themselves 
have signed for the objects they have compelled 
the owners to hand over to them. 

Every chateau in the north of France, places 

153 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

such as those of the Prince of Monaco, of Mr. 
Balny d'Avrlcourt, that of Coucy, have been 
looted and pillaged. Antique furniture, paintings 
by the great masters, sculptures, historic pieces 
of tapestry have been carried off into Germany. 
Tapestries, sculptures, furniture and paintings 
must come back from Germany. The museums at 
St. Quentin and Lille have seen their collections 
of value to art and science carried off; these col- 
lections must come back. Factories have been 
robbed of their pumps, of their equipment, of 
their trucks ; other pumps, other equipment, other 
trucks must be put in their place. Otherwise, 
nothing will prevent that in the future other ex- 
peditions will come to ransack other countries. 
A bold move towards Venice allowed base hands 
to be laid on the most beautiful works of art hu- 
manity had produced. A fortunate descent on 
the shores of Long Island or of New Jersey would 
allow the Metropolitan Museum to be looted. 

At Ham, in the Somme district, the Grand 
Duke of Hesse, the former Empress of Russia's 
brother, one morning entered the shop of an an- 

153 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

tiquarian and picked out a number of ancient 
bibelots and vases, ordering that they be sent to 
his quarters. The owner thought it would be 
wise to state the price of the lot : 

"The price," exclaimed the Grand Duke, 
"there's nothing for me to pay for! Everything 
here belongs to me." 

But the owner protested, since, as he said, 
he did own the goods. 

"Here," said the Grand Duke, "this will pay 
you for them." 

And he handed the man his card with the words 
"good for so many francs" written on it ; also his 
signature. 

The number of francs mentioned on the Grand 
Duke of Hesse's card will have to be paid in full 
after the war. So will the thousands of requisi- 
tions signed by persons of less importance — ^gov- 
ernors, generals, colonels, majors, men who 
thought they could ransack all Belgium and the 
north of France with impunity, giving in exchange 
mere scraps of paper. 

The great cities of Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, 

154 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

Laon and Mezieres have been compelled to pay 
exorbitant levies for war purposes, which have 
amounted to billions of francs. This was con- 
trary to all international law and to the Hague 
Tribunal's regulations. The funds thus illegally 
extorted will have to be repaid in full. No indem- 
nities — that is understood and is perfectly just. 
It is precisely because there will not have to be 
any indemnities that the indemnities already ex- 
torted will have to be made good. 

Finally, just as France cannot make peace 
without receiving restitution and reparation, she 
cannot make peace without receiving certain guar- 
antees. 

Here we approach one of the most complex and 
difficult aspects of the entire problem, because we 
find ourselves in the presence of the famous League 
of Nations. President Wilson, one of the most 
noble and generous spirits, one of the greatest fig- 
ures that has appeared in the entire war, launched 
if not the idea at least the first definite statement 
thereof. . . . And this statement has awakened 

155 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

in all hearts, tired of carnage and slaughter, the 
same infinite hope that words of goodness, liberty 
and fraternity always awaken, which evoke the 
thought of the supreme end towards which human- 
ity tends. The statement has done better than 
merely move men's emotions, it has moved men's 
thoughts. It has kindled in them a ray of hope 
which tends to shine more brightly every day in 
that they know that the civilized world will be 
truly a civilized world only when it is formed and 
fashioned in the Hkeness of a civilized nation. In 
a civilized nation no one has the right to kill an- 
other man, to obtain justice by using force, to 
commit murder, nor to raise armed bands to shoot, 
blow up or kill with poisoned gas other men. Tri- 
bunals exist to appease differences and to prevent 
fighting; every citizen is associated with every 
other citizen in the common cause of security and 
progress. 

In a civilized world no nation has the right to 
massacre, no nation ought to have the right to 
resort to the use of force to obtain justice, no 
nation ought to have the right to attack, harm, 

156 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

or destroy another nation. There ought to be 
tribunals to appease the differences of peoples 
as well as those of individuals ; every nation ought 
to be associated with every other nation to assure 
the progress of the entire world. 

This theory is not only appealing, it is irrefu- 
table. But it is a law for this earth that the most 
profoundly just and true theories, those which 
have been most scientifically demonstrated, encoun- 
ter, when put into practice, obstacles which have 
not been surmounted and are often insurmount- 
able. 

President Wilson, who is not only a great jurist 
and a noble idealist, but who also has that genius 
for realization which is a characteristic of all 
America, has not failed to appreciate the difficul- 
ties which the League of Nations would encounter 
were it put into practice. And if, in his messages, 
he has insisted with a force that is every day more 
eloquent on the necessity of tackling the problem ; 
he has never given a detailed solution for it. 

He has done better than that, for he has swept 
aside certain factors which would have made it 

157 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

absolutely impossible. On the second of April, 
1917, in his immortal declaration of war, he for- 
mally declared that "no autocratic government 
could be trusted to keep faith within a partnership 
of nations or observe its covenants. It must be 
a league of honor, a partnership of opinion. In- 
trigue would eat its vitals away; the plottings of 
inner circles who could plan what they would and 
render account to no one, would be a corruption 
seated at its very heart. Only a free people can 
hold their purpose and their honor steady to a 
common end, and prefer the interests of mankind 
to any narrow interest of their own." 

These are admirable words of truth and of 
pliilosophic depth, words which deserve to be 
graven in stone. No autocracy, then, in the 
League of Nations, no German militarism nor 
Austrian imperialism in it. No universal league 
of nations, even, but a limited society, a society of 
democracies ! 

Certain hasty critics have observed neither the 
same prudence nor logic as President Wilson. 
They have been farther from the truth, much far- 

158 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

ther from the truth. They have falsified his text, 
as da all commentators. They have desired to 
build complete in all details the League of Na- 
tions, which only existed in outline. They have 
succeeded in showing how difficult the construction 
would be, and they have only been able to set up 
a house of cards which the first breath of wind 
would knock down. 

For example, this is how one of the most emi- 
nent French socialists, M. Albert Thomas, a man 
who has given abundant proof of his practical 
experience and actual talents, formerly the French 
Minister of Munitions, depicts the League of Na- 
tions : 

Let us suppose [he wrote on the twenty-fifth 
of December, 1917], as the mathematicians say, 
that the problem is solved. Let us suppose that 
the society of nations, made up of all the nations, 
had been created by common accord about the 
year 1910 or 1912. What would it have accom- 
plished? After the assassination of the Arch- 
duke Franz Ferdinand, the Hague Tribunal, or 
perhaps the Washington Tribunal, would have 
made inquiry into the conditions of the murder. 

159 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

It would have taken certain steps. And if Aus- 
tria, still dissatisfied, had invaded Serbia for the 
sake of revenge or to give scope to her ambitious 
designs, if Germany had joined with her in this, 
then all the other allied nations, in the perform- 
ance of their duty, would have entered into a 
war against the central powers in order to force 
them to respect the liberties and the integrity of 
little Serbia. For there can be no rule without 
sanction therefore. No international law is pos- 
sible if there does not exist at the ser\'ice of 
this law the "organized force that is superior to 
that of any nation or to that of any alliance of 
nations" of which President Wilson speaks. 

If the society of nations had existed in 1914* 
and if Germany had violated its laws, the entire 
world would have taken military action against 
Germany by means of war, economic action by 
means of blockade and of depriving her of the 
necessities of life. The entire world would have 
been at war with her and her allies. And in order 
that the league of nations might continue to exist, 
in order that the rule of justice, scarcely out- 
lined, could have continued to exist, the victory of 
the entente powers would have been as necessary 
as it is today. Mr. Lloyd-George and President 
Wilson would have said, as they say today, "No 
league of nations without victory." 

160 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

The difference is that in 1914 a verdict in the 
case would have been handed down by the com- 
mon tribunal of the nations, and that there would 
have been no possible discussion of the violations 
of right committed by Germany nor on the re- 
sponsibility for having" caused the war. 

The difference would have been that in place of 
seeing the neutral nations hesitating, frightened 
by German force, disturbed by German lies, rally- 
ing only under the protection of one of the Entente 
armies, at the moment when they had seen on 
which side lay right, they would all, at the very 
beginning, have entered into the battle in fulfill- 
ment of their obligations not only on account of 
their moral responsibility but on account of their 
clearly understood interests. 

Finally the difference is that, the rights of 
the peoples having been defined clearly, there 
would have been no moment's uncertainty nor 
hesitation concerning the ends of the war. 

And it is impossible to doubt that the present 
situation of the war would have been decidedly 
different from what it is today. 

I have cited the passage at length in order to 
give the critic's argument its widest scope. But, 
alas, who does not see the argument's fallacy? 
Who does not perceive that this reenforced sky- 

161 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

scraper is a cardboard column liable to fall with 
the first push that is given it ? 

Moreover, from the very beginning, the origina- 
tor of the idea of the society of nations admits the 
hypothesis of a war and presupposes all the na- 
tions in the league are making war against an- 
other nation. Even with the society of nations 
there wiU stiU be wars. Even with the society of 
nations there will be no guarantee of absolute 
peace. 

So we are shown the spectacle, in case of war, 
of all the nations making war at once, without the 
least hesitation, without delay, without any dis- 
cussion, against the people that disturbs the peace 
of the world. Is it a certainty that this unanim- 
ity would result? Is it a certainty that there 
would be no falling away, no delay ? And, granting 
that there would be none of this, is it a certainty 
that irremediable catastrophies could be avoided? 
To consider once more M. Thomas' example of the 
war of 1914, let us suppose that there had been 
at that time a society of nations, that England 
had had an army, that the United States had had 

162 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

an army, and that the Anglo-American army had 
not lost a day nor an hour. Is it a certainty that 
they would have prevented the Germans from be- 
ing at the gates of Liege on the seventh of Au- 
gust, in Brussels on the nineteenth of August, and 
before Paris on the second of September? And if 
today France, England, America, Italy, Japan 
and four-fifths of the civilized world, in spite of 
the treasure of heroism and effort that has been 
expended, have not been able to prevent the pres- 
ent result, is it possible that this would have been 
obtained with the assistance of Switzerland, the 
Scandinavian nations, Holland and Spain? 

"The difference," continues M. Thomas, *'is that 
there would not have been the possibility of any 
discussion of the violation of rights committed 
by Germany, nor upon what nation rests the re- 
sponsibility for causing the war.'* But is that 
so sure? How was there any discussion in 1914 
of the violation of Belgium by Germany? Did 
not Germany herself, in the teeth of all the world, 
hurl the avowal of this violation when von Beth- 
mann-Hollweg, in the Reichstag, cynically de- 

163 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

clared: "We have just invaded Belgium. . . . 
Yes, we know that it is contrary to international 
law ; but we were compelled by necessity. And ne- 
cessity knows no law." What international tri- 
bunal's verdict could have the force of this avowal 
from the lips of the guilty man.^ However, the 
world has not moved, the world has not trembled, 
the world is not now up in arms. And who would 
guarantee that another time when the case will be 
perhaps less flagrant, the crime more obscure, the 
aggressor less cynical, the world will tremble and 
rise in arms.^ 

Moreover, is it always possible to determine the 
responsibility for war's origin? Is it always pos- 
sible, before an international tribunal of arbitra- 
tion, to throw the proper light and all the light on 
the course events have taken .^^ Will the judges al- 
ways be unanimous ? 

Take the case of the last Balkan War in 1912. 
Is it possible today, from a six years' perspective, 
to establish with any degree of certitude the rea- 
sons for its outbreak and determine without hesi- 
tation the responsibility for it? Can you affirm 

164? 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

with any degree of certainty that a court com- 
posed of American, European and Asiatic jurists 
would be unanimous in condemning Turkey and 
exonerating Bulgaria? And tomorrow, if the 
Ukraine should suddenly hurl itself against the 
Republic of the Don, or if Finland invaded Great 
Russia, with your international court would you 
be really in a way to pronounce a verdict within 
five days? And if Sweden took Finland's part 
and Germany took Great Russia's, could you 
guarantee that Argentina, Japan, Australia and 
even France would consent to mobilize their fleets 
and their armies to settle the question of a fron- 
tier on the banks of the Neva ? Can you guarantee 
that every war of every Slav republic would have 
for a correlative the mobilization of the entire 
world ? 

And then are you certain that the idea of a 
society of nations is exactly a new one? Are you 
certain that there did not exist a society of na- 
tions before the outbreak of the present war? 
Have you never heard that, on the fifteenth of 
June, 1907, at The Hague, forty-four nations of 

165 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

the civilized world (and Germany was one of the 
number) assembled and met together to form 
such a league? Have you never heard of the 
treaty that was signed then which, according to 
the wording at the treaty's head, had for its ob- 
ject "fixing the laws and usages at war on the 
land"? Have you never read the terms of this 
convention, have you never glanced through the 
sixty-odd articles which today, in the presence of 
the nameless horrors in which we lend a hand, 
oiFer a prodigious interest to actuality ? 

Glance over these articles — and let us see how 
they have been applied: 

Aeticle 4 provides that "prisoners of war 
must he humanely treated. All their personal 
belongings, except armSy horses, and imtitary pa- 
pers, remain their property.'* Now all the pris- 
oners held by Germany have, without exception, 
been spoiled of their money, of their portfolios, 
of their rings, of their jewels, of their eyeglasses. 

Article 6 says that *Hhe state may employ as 
workmen the prisoners of war," but it is careful 
in stipulating "that the work must not he exces- 
sive and must have nothing whatever to do with 

166 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

operations of war,'' Article 7 says that 
*^ prisoners of war shall he treated as regards 
hoards lodgingy and clothing on the same footing 
a^ the troops of the Government who captured 
them." Each of these two articles has been vio- 
lated since the beginning of the war by the Ger- 
mans. After the Battle of the Marne, when the 
advancing French troops of JofFre arrived on the 
Aisne they found French civilians captured by 
the Germans and compelled by them to work in 
the trenches. Moreover, an official report emanat- 
ing from Mr. Gustave Ador, President of the 
International Red Cross, now member of the 
Swiss Federal Council, called the attention of the 
belligerents as soon as October, 1914, to the bad 
treatment of the French prisoners in Germany. 
Each French officer had, as prisoner, a salary of 
one hundred marks per month, which was not 
even half of the pay of an under-officer. 

Articles 23, 25, 27, and 28 are so interesting 
that they must be quoted in extenso: 

Article 23. In addition to the prohibitions 
provided hy special conventions^ it is especially 
forbidden: 

(a) To employ poison or poisoned weapons. 

( c) To hill or wownd an enemy who, having laid 
down his arms, or having no longer miean-s of de- 
fense, has surrendered at discretion, 

167 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

(d) To declare that no qiuirter will he given. 

(e) To employ arrnSy projectiles, or material 
calculated to cause unnecessary suffering, 

(f) To make improper use of a -flag of truce, of 
the national flag, or of the militarif vnsignia and 
uniform of the enemy, as well as the distinctive 
badges of the Geneva Convention. 

(g) To destroy or seize the enemy^s property, 
unless such destruction or seizure he imperatively 
demanded hy the necessities of war. 

(h) A belligerent is likewise forbidden to com- 
pel the nationals of tJie hostile party to take part 
in the operations of war directed against their 
own country, even if they were in the belligerent's 
service before the commencement of the war. 

Article 25. The attack or bombardment, hy 
whatever means, of towns, villages, dwellings, or 
buildings which are undefended is prohibited. 

Article 27. In sieges and bombardments all 
necessary steps must he taken to spare, as far as 
possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, 
science, or charitable purposes, historic Tnonv/- 
ments, hospitals and places where the sick and 
wounded are collected, provided they are not be- 
ing used at the time for military purposes. 

Article 28. The pillage of a town or place, 
even when taken by assault, is prohibited. 

It seems that the men of The Hague, when they 

168 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

wrote those articles, had a sort of prescience of 
the future cruelties of war and that they wanted 
to avoid them. Let us see how far they have 
succeeded. 

It was forbidden to employ poison or poisoned 
weapons. No later than last spring when the 
Germans evacuated certain parts of the north of 
France instructions emanating from the German 
general headquarters were found in the pocket 
of many German prisoners or on the dead, and 
those instructions indicated how the water of 
the wells was to be poisoned: "Such and such a 
soldier," ran instructions, "will be in charge of 
the wells, will throw in each one a sufficient quan- 
tity of poison or creosote, or, lacking these, all 
available filth." 

It was forbidden to declare that no quarter 
would be given. And here is the order of the day 
issued on August 25, 1914, by General Stenger, 
commanding the Fifty-eighth German Brigade, to 
his troops : "After today no more prisoners will 
be taken. All prisoners are to be killed. Wounded, 
with or without arms, are to be killed. Even 
prisoners already grouped in convoys are to be 
killed. Let not a single living enemy remain be- 
hind us." 

It was forbidden to pillage a town or locality, 
even when taken by assault. And on the corpse 

169 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

of the German private Handschiimacher (of the 
Eleventh Battalion of Jagers, Reserve) in the very 
earliest days of the war, was found the following 
diary: "August 8, 1914. Gouvy (Belgium). 
There, as the Belgians had fired on the Grerman 
soldiers, we at once pillaged the goods station. 
Some cases, eggs, shirts, and all eatables were 
seized. The safe was gutted and the money di- 
vided among the men. All securities were torn 
up." 

In fact, pillage and robberies went on on such 
a high scale during the first months of the war 
that considerable sums of money were sent from 
France and Belgium to Germany, A German 
newspaper, the Berlin Tageblatt, of November 26, 
1914, implicitly avowed it when, in a technical 
article on the military treasury ("Der Zahlmeister 
vm Felde^'), it wrote: "It is curious to note that 
far more money-orders are sent from the theater 
of operations to the interior of the country than 
vice versa.^^ 

Articus 50 of this Hague Convention states 
that "wo general penalty, pectuniary or otherwise, 
shall he inflicted upon the population on account 
of the acts of individuals for which they) cannot he 
regarded as jointly and severally responsible.^* 
Side by side with this article, it is interesting to 
reproduce an extract from a proclamation of 

170 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

General von Biilow, posted up at Liege on August 
22, 1914: **The inhabitants of the town of An- 
denne, after having protested their peaceful in- 
tentions, treacherously surprised our troops. It 
is with my full consent that the general in com- 
mand had the whole place burned, and about a 
hundred people were shot." Moreover, here is an 
extract from a proclamation of Major-Com- 
mander Dieckmann, posted up at Grivegnee on 
September 8, 1914j: "Every one who does not 
obey at once the word of command, *Hands up,' is 
guilty of the penalty of death." And finally here 
is an extract from a proclamation of Marshal 
Baron von der Goltz, posted up in Brussels on 
October 5, 1914: "In future all places near the 
spot where such acts have taken place [destruc- 
tion of railway lines or telegraph wires] — ^no mat- 
ter whether guilty or not — shall be punished 
without mercy. With this end in view, hostages 
have been brought from all places near railway 
lines exposed to such attacks, and at the first at- 
tempt to destroy railway lines, telegraph or tele- 
phone lines, they will be immediately shot." 

Article 56 of the Hague Convention provides 
that *Hlie property of municipalities y that of vw- 
stitutions dedicated to religion, charity, and edur- 
cation, to the arts and sciences, even when state 
property, shaU he treated as private property. 

171 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

All seizure of, destruction^ or willful damage done 
to institutions of this character, historical Tnonu- 
m-ents, works of art and science, is forbidden, and 
should he made th£ subject of legal proceedings,^^ 
Four names, which will be eternally remem- 
bered, are here sufficient to answer : there is Rheims 
and its Cathedral, Louvain and its library, Arras 
and its Town Hall, Ypres and its bell tower. 

In the course of this war, Germany has dis- 
avowed her signature any number of times and 
has broken her pledges just as often as she has 
made them. Germany is a proven perjurer not 
only in the eyes of the nations at war with her, but 
also in the regard of the forty-four countries sig- 
natory of the Hague Convention. However, we 
have never heard that a single one of these nations 
lodged a protest against her actions. The Hague 
Convention has been torn into shreds, and not 
one of its signers has entered the slightest protest. 

Is the next society of nations to be modeled on 
the same principles? Is the next society of na- 
tions going to draw up articles of the same kind 
as the Hague society? Is the future society of 
nations to accept among its members the same Em- 

172 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

pire of Germany wliich in 1914 declared bank- 
ruptcy? Will the future act of the society of 
nations be a simple scrap of paper, like the last 
act of 1907? 

But let us cease asking these questions. There 
is no gain in asking certain questions to gain cer- 
tain replies. There is no gain in examining certain 
problems to make the difficulties of the solution 
more apparent. 

There is no doubt that the society of nations 
will exist some day. For the honor of humanity 
we must hope that it will exist. But it is not one 
day's work, nor the speaking of a single discourse 
nor the writing of one article that will build it. 
In M. Clemenceau's words, right can not be firmly 
established as long as the world is based on might. 
To bring about the rule of Right, Might must be 
destroyed and driven out as the very first move 
in the campaign for ultimate liberty. 

German Might will not be destroyed by inter- 
national compacts to which Germany will be 
party. Recall the treaty guaranteeing Belgium's 
integrity, which was one that Germany signed. 

ITS 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

Recall the Hague Conventions, signed by this 
same Germany. The men are fools who wiU not 
recall these things, who will not profit by them 
as examples. German might will only be destroyed 
by international agreements to which Germany 
is not a party, and which shall place German 
might beyond the regions in which it can play a 
dangerous part. 

Now we are not building this upon sand, but 
upon a foundation of solid rock. 

Germany needs two things to continue her na- 
tional existence. She must import from other 
countries certain products necessary to her ex- 
istence. For example, there is wool, of which 
she was obliged to import 1,888,481 metric quin- 
tals in order to manufacture her sixteen thousand 
grades of woolen fabrics. There is copper, of 
which Germany imported 250,000 tons in 1913 
(200,000 tons came from America), in order to 
sell the merchandise she finds has a good market 
in foreign countries. Considering all Germany's 
exports for the period from 1903-1913, we find 
that their total has passed from 6,400 millions to 

174 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

12,600 millions, an increase of nearly one hundred 
per cent. 

There lies the best, the true, indeed the only 
means whereby the Allies can compel Germany to 
disarm. We do not demand that the economic 
war shall continue after the actual warfare is at 
an end, but we can demand that the Allies shall 
not lay aside their economic arms when the (Ger- 
mans shall have laid aside their fighting arms. In 
other words, we can demand that the Allies do not 
give Germany wool, copper and money if they 
know that this wool, money and copper are to 
feed the war machine. This war machine cost 
the German Empire nearly four hundred millions 
of dollars according to the budget of 1914. Sup- 
pose the Allies said to Germany, "As long as you 
have a military and naval budget of four hundred 
millions of dollars, we regret that we shall be un- 
able to sell you wool and copper. We regret that 
we shall be unable to buy anything from you. But, 
if you reduce this budget by half, we are willing 
to give you one million metric quintals of wool 
and 125,000 tons of copper. Likewise, we are 

175 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

disposed to make purchases in your market total- 
ling one billion dollars. If your military and 
naval budgets fall to nothing, we are willing to go 
much farther and buy and sell everything with 
you in unlimited quantities." Suppose the Allies 
make these proposals to Germany. Suppose they 
are put into effect. Will they not be a better 
guarantee of universal peace than all the Conven- 
tions and all the courts of arbitration in the 
world ? 

Then let no one disturb the peace of the world 
for his selfish purposes. Left to themselves, the 
little Balkan States and Slav States will not start 
great, long wars, just as the lone robber posted at 
the edge of a woods will not endanger a province's 
communications for very long. The formidable 
thing is the great country that is arranged and 
planned along the lines of war, where everything 
is organized with a view to war; just as the for- 
midable thing for a city is the small band of male- 
factors who are able to terrify half the citizens 
by the use of highly perfected arms. 

There will be no lasting peace until the most 

176 



THE WAR AIMS OF FRANCE 

terrible war machine the world has ever known 
shall have been destroyed, reduced to an impotent 
state of non-existence. Ideals will not destroy 
this machine, but practical means and getting 
down to the facts of the case will do so. Pasteur 
did not overcome hydrophobia by writing treatises 
and dissertations. He met poison with poison, 
he injected the healing serum into the veins of the 
maddened dog. Now Germany is the mad dog, 
and Germany must be inoculated. After that 
there will be time to pass hygienic measures for 
the regiment of the entire world. Today Ger- 
many must be killed or cured. Germany is the 
cancer that must be cut out, lest it eat up 
the world. 

It has been a matter of life and death for Lib- 
erty and Civilization. Both of them have been 
sick unto death. Clutched foully by the throat, 
they have heard their own death rattle; they 
themselves thought they might not survive. Now 
they stand on their feet, so weak, so pale, and so 
feeble that their life might still be despaired of. 
If we do not obtain definite guarantees against 

177 



FIGHTING FRANCE 

the monster who has barely failed to strangle them 
and to force the entire world back into the dark- 
ness of slavery, we shall have failed in our task, 
and the blood shed in the fight for Liberty wiU 
have been shed in vain. 



APPENDICES 

The following irrefutable documents, selected 
from among thousands of others which history 
will record, prove better than any other means 
how the Germans understand war and peace. They 
deserve a place in this volume because they demon- 
strate why and against what France is fighting. 

APPENDIX I 
HOW GERMANS FORCED WAR ON FRANCE 

Answering to the Pope, in September, 191T, 
Kaiser Wilhelm II declared *'that he had always 
regarded it as his principal and most sacred duty 
to preserve the blessing of Feace for the German 
people and the world." More recently, driving 
through the battlefield of Cambrai, the Kaiser, 

179 



APPENDICES 

according to the war correspondent of the Berlin 
Lokalanzeiger, exclaimed: "God knows what I 
have not done to prevent such a war I'' 

A document made public by M. Stephen Pi- 
chon, French Foreign Minister, shows exactly 
how, in the last days of July, 1914, the Kaiser 
tried "to preserve the blessings of Peace for the 
German people and the world" and what he did 
"to prevent such a war." 

Speaking at the Sorbonne, in Paris, on March 
1, 1918, M.Pichon said: 

I will establish by documents that the day the 
Germans deliberately rendered inevitable the most 
frightful of wars they tried to dishonor us by the 
most cowardly complicity in the ambush into 
which they drew Europe. I will establish it in 
the revelation of a document which the German 
Chancellor, after having drawn it up, preserved 
carefully, and you will see why, in the most pro- 
found mystery of the most secret archives. 

We have known only recently of its authen- 
ticity, and it defies any sort of attempt to dis- 
prove it. It bears the signature of Bethmann 
Hollweg (German Imperial Chancellor at the out- 
break of the war) and the date July 31, 1914. 

180 



APPENDICES 

On that day Von Schoen (German Ambassador to 
France) was charged by a telegram from his 
Chancellor to notify us of a state of danger of 
war with Russia and to ask us to remain neutral, 
giving us eighteen hours in which to reply. 

What was unknown until today was that the 
telegram of the German Chancellor containing 
these instructions ended with these words : 

If the French Gox}ernment declares it wUl re- 
main neutral your Excellency wUl he good enough 
to declare that we must, as a guarantee of its neu- 
trality, require th-e handing over of the fortresses 
of Toul and Verdun; that we will occupy them and 
will restore them after the end of the war with 
Russia. A reply to this last question must reach 
here before Saturday afternoon at If, o'clock. 

That is how Germany wanted peace at the mo- 
ment when she declared war ! That is how sincere 
she was in pretending that we obliged her to take 
up arms for her defense! That is the price she 
intended to make us pay for our baseness if we 
had the infamy to repudiate our signature as 
Prussia repudiated hers by tearing up the treaty 
that guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium ! 

It was explained that the above document has 
not previously been published, because the code 

181 



APPENDICES 

could not be deciphered : the French Foreign Office 
succeeded only a few days before in Recodifying 
the document. 

Moreover, Herr von Bethmann Hollweg, on 
March 18, 1918, acknowledged the accuracy of 
M. Pichon's quotation and contented himself to 
declare that "his instructions to Von Schoen were 
justified.' 



5> 



APPENDIX II 

HOW GERMANS TREAT AN AMBASSADOR 

This document is quoted from the French "Yel- 
low Book," page 152: 

From Copenhagen 
French Yellow Booh No. 155 

M. Bapst, French Minister at Copenhagen, to 
M. Doumergue, Minister for Foreign Affairs, 

Copenhagen, August 6, 1914. 

The French Ambassador at Berlin, M. Jules 
Cambon, asks me to communicate to your Excel- 
lency the following telegram : 

I have been sent to Denmark by the German 
Government. I have just arrived at Copenhagen. 
I am accompanied by all the staff of the Embassy 
and the Russian Charge d'Affaires at Darmstadt 
with his family. The treatment which we have 
received is of such a nature that I have thought 

183 



APPENDICES 

it desirable to make a complete report on it to 
your Excellency by telegram. 

On the morning of Monday, the 3rd of August, 
after I had, in accordance with your instructions, 
addressed to Herr von Jagow a protest against 
the acts of aggression committed on French ter- 
ritory by German troops, the Secretary of State 
came to see me. Herr von Jagow came to com- 
plain of acts of aggression which he alleged had 
been committed in Germany, especially at Nurem- 
berg and Coblenz by French aviators, who accord- 
ing to his statement "had come from Belgium." 
I answered that I had not the slightest informa- 
tion as to the facts to which he attached so much 
importance and the improbability of which 
seemed to me obvious ; on my part I asked him 
if he had read the note which I had addressed 
to him with regard to the invasion of our terri- 
tory by detachments of the German army. As 
the Secretary of State said that he had not yet 
read this note I explained its contents to him. I 
called his attention to the act committed by the 
officer commanding one of the detachments who 
had advanced to the French village of Joncherey, 
ten kilometers within our frontier, and had blown 
out the brains of a French soldier whom he had 
met there. After having given my opinion of this 
act I added: 

184 



APPENDICES 

"You will admit that under no circumstances 
could there be any comparison between this and 
the flight of an aeroplane over foreign territory 
carried out by private persons animated by that 
spirit of individual courage by which aviators are 
distinguished. 

"An act of aggression committed on the terri- 
tory of a neighbor by detachments of regular 
troops commanded by officers assumes an impor- 
tance of quite a different nature." 

Herr von Jagow explained to me that he had 
no knowledge of the facts of which I was speaking 
to him, and he added that it was difficult for events 
of this kind not to take place when two armies 
filled with the feelings which animated our troops 
found themselves face to face on either side of 
the frontier. 

At this moment the crowds which thronged the 
Pariser Platz in front of the Embassy and whom 
we could see through the window of my study, 
which was half open, uttered shouts against 
France. I asked the Secretary of State when all 
this would come to an end. 

"The Government has not yet come to a deci- 
sion," Herr von Jagow answered. "It is probable 
that Herr von Schoen will receive orders today to 
ask for his passports and then you will receive 
yours." The Secretary of State assured me that 

185 



APPENDICES 

I need not have any anxiety with regard to my 
departure, and that all the proprieties would be 
observed with regard to me as well as my staff. 
We were not to see one another any more and 
we took leave of one another after an interview 
which had been courteous and could not make me 
anticipate what was in store for me. 

Before leaving Herr von Jagow I expressed to 
him my wish to make a personal call on the Chan- 
cellor, as that would be the last opportunity that 
I should have of seeing him. 

Herr von Jagow said that he did not advise 
me to carry out this intention as the interview 
would serve no purpose and could not fail to be 
painful. 

At 6 o'clock in the evening Herr von Lang- 
werth brought me my passports. In the name of 
his Government he refused to agree to the wish 
which I expressed to him that I should be per- 
mitted to travel by Holland or Belgium. He 
suggested to me that I should go either by way 
of Copenhagen, although he could not assure me 
a free passage by sea, or through Switzerland via 
Constance. 

I accepted this last route; Herr von Lang- 
werth having asked me to leave as soon as I pos- 
sibly could it was agreed, in consideration of the 
necessity I was under of making arrangements 

186 



APPENDICES 

with the Spanish Ambassador, who was under- 
taking the charge of our interests, that I should 
leave on the next day, the 4th August, at 10 
o'clock at night. 

At 7 o'clock, an hour after Herr von Lang- 
werth had left, Herr von Lancken, formerly 
Councilor of the Embassy at Paris, came from 
the Minister for Foreign Affairs to tell me to 
request the staff of my Embassy to cease taking 
meals in the restaurants. This order was so 
strict that on the next day, Tuesday, I had to 
have recourse to the authority of the Wilhelm- 
strasse to get the Hotel Bristol to send our meals 
to the Embassy. 

At 11 o'clock on the same evening, Monday, 
Herr von Langwerth came back to tell me that 
his Government would not allow our return by 
way of Switzerland under the pretext that it 
would take three days and three nights to take 
me to Constance. He announced that I should 
be sent by way of Vienna. I only agreed to this 
alteration under reserve, and during the night I 
wrote the following letter to Herr von Lang- 
werth : 

"Berlin, August 3rd, 1914. 
"M. LE Baron, 

"I have been thinking over the route for my 
return to my country about which you came to 

187 



APPENDICES 

speak to me this evening. You propose that I 
shall travel by Vienna. I run the risk of finding 
myself detained in that town, if not by the action 
of the Austrian Government, at least owing to the 
mobilization which creates great difficulties sim- 
ilar to those existing in Germany as to the move- 
ments of trains. 

"Under these circumstances I must ask the Ger- 
man Government for a promise made on their 
honor that the Austrian Government will send 
me to Switzerland, and that the Swiss Govern- 
ment will not close its frontier either to me 
or to the persons by whom I am accompanied, as 
I am told that that frontier has been firmly 
closed to foreigners. 

"I cannot then accept the proposal that you 
have made to me unless I have the security which 
I ask for, and unless I am assured that I shall 
not be detained for some months outside my coun- 
try. 

"Jules Cambon." 

In answer to this letter on the next morning, 
Tuesday the 4th August, Herr von Langwerth 
gave me in writing an assurance that the Aus- 
trian and Swiss authorities had received com- 
munications to this effect. 

188 



APPENDICES 

At the same time M. Miladowski, attached to 
the Consulate at Berlin, as well as other French- 
men, was arrested in his own house while in bed. 
M. Miladowski, for whom a diplomatic passport 
had been requested, was released after four hours. 

I was prepared to leave for Vienna when, at 
a quarter to five, Herr von Langwerth came back 
to inform me that I would have to leave with 
the persons accompanying me at 10 o'clock in the 
evening, but that I should be taken to Denmark. 
On this new requirement I asked if I should be 
confined in a fortress supposing I did not comply. 
Herr von Langwerth simply answered that he 
would return to receive my answer in half an hour, 
I did not wish to give the German Government 
the pretext for saying that I had refused to de- 
part from Germany. I therefore told Herr von 
Langwerth when he came back that I would submit 
to the order which had been given to me but "that 
I protested." 

I at once wrote to Herr von Jagow a letter of 
which the following is a copy: 



Berlin, August 4, 1914. 
"Sir: 

'•More than once your Excellency has said to 
me that the Imperial Government, in accordance 

189 



APPENDICES 

with the usages of international courtesy, would 
facilitate my return to my own country, and 
would give me every means of getting back to it 
quickly. 

"Yesterday, however, Baron von Langwerth, 
after refusing me access to Belgium and Holland, 
informed me that I should travel to Switzerland 
via Constance. During the night I was informed 
that I should be sent to Austria, a country which 
is taking part in the present war on the side of 
Germany. As I had no knowledge of the inten- 
tions of Austria towards me, since on Austrian 
soil I am nothing but an ordinary private indi- 
vidual, I wrote to Baron von Langwerth that I 
requested the Imperial Government to give me a 
promise that the Imperial and Royal Austrian 
authorities would give me all possible facilities 
for continuing my journey and that Switzerland 
would not be closed to me. Herr von Langwerth 
has been good enough to answer me in writing 
that I could be assured of an easy journey and 
that the Austrian authorities would do all that 
was necessary. 

"It is nearly five o'clock, and Baron von Lang- 
werth has just announced to me that I shall be sent 
to Denmark. In view of the present situation, 
there is no security that I shall find a ship to take 
me to England and it is this consideration which 

190 



APPENDICES 

made me reject this proposal with the approval 
of Herr von Langwerth. 

"In truth no liberty is left me and I am treated 
almost as a prisoner. I am obliged to submit, hav- 
ing no means of obtaining that the rules of inter- 
national courtesy should be observed towards me, 
but I hasten to protest to your Excellency against 
the manner in which I am being treated. 

"Jules Cambon." 

Whilst my letter was being delivered I was told 
that the journey would not be made direct but by 
way of Schleswig. At 10 o'clock in the evening, I 
left the Embassy with my staff in the middle of a 
great assembly of foot and mounted police. 

At the station the Ministry for Foreign Affairs 
was only represented by an officer of inferior rank. 

The journey took place with extreme slowness. 
We took more than twenty-four hours to reach 
the frontier. It seemed that at every station 
they had to wait for orders to proceed. I was ac- 
companied by Major von Rheinbaben of the 
Alessandra Regiment of the Guard and by a police 
officer. In the neighborhood of the Kiel Canal the 
soldiers entered our carriages. The windows were 
shut and the curtains of the carriages drawn 
down; each of us had to remain isolated in his 
compartment and was forbidden to get up or to 

191 



APPENDICES 

touch his luggage. A soldier stood in the cor- 
ridor of the carriage before the door of each of 
our compartments which were kept open, revolver 
in hand and finger on the trigger. The Russian 
Charge d'AfFaires, the women and children and 
everyone were subjected to the same treatment. 
At the last German station about 11 o'clock 
at night, Major von Rheinbaben came to take 
leave of me. I handed to him the following letter 
to Herr von Jagow. 

"Wednesday Evening, August 5, 1914. 
"Sir: 

"Yesterday before leaving Berlin, I protested in 
writing to your Excellency against the repeated 
change of route which was imposed upon me by 
the Imperial Government on my journey from 
Germany. 

"Today as the train in which I was passed over 
the Kiel Canal an attempt was made to search all 
our luggage as if we might have hidden some in- 
strument of destruction. Thanks to the interfer- 
ence of Major von Rheinbaben, we were spared 
this insult. But they went further. 

"They obliged us to remain each in his own 
compartment, the windows and blinds having been 
closed. During this time, in the corridors of the 
carriages at the door of each compartment and 

192 



APPENDICES 

facing each on^ of us, stood a soldier, revolver in 
hand, finger on the trigger, for nearly half an 
hour, 

"I consider it my duty to protect against this 
threat of violence to the Ambassador of the Re- 
public and the staff of his Embassy, violence which 
nothing could even have made me anticipate. 

"Yesterday I had the honor of writing to 
your Excellency that I was being treated almost 
as a prisoner. Today I am being treated as a 
dangerous prisoner. Also I must record that 
during our journey which from Berlin to Den- 
mark has taken twenty-four hours, no food has 
been prepared nor provided for me nor for the 
persons who were traveling with me to the 
frontier. 

"Jules Cambon." 

I thought that our troubles had finished, when 
shortly afterwards Major von Rheinbaben came, 
rather embarrassed, to inform me that the train 
would not proceed to the Danish frontier if I 
did not pay the cost of this train. I expressed 
my astonishment that I had not been made to pay 
at Berlin and that at any rate I had not been 
forewarned of this. I offered to pay by a cheque 
on one of the largest Berlin banks. This facility 
was refused me. With the help of my companions 

193 



APPENDICES 

I was able to collect, in gold, the sum which was 
required from me at once, and which amounted 
to 3,611 marks, 75 pfennig. This is about 5,000 
francs in accordance with the present rate of 
exchange. 

After this last incident, I thought it necessary 
to ask Major von Rheinbaben for his word of 
honor as an officer and a gentleman that we 
should be taken to the Danish frontier. He gave 
it to me, and I required that the policeman who 
was with us should accompany us. 

In this way we arrived at the first Danish sta- 
tion, where the Danish Government had had a 
train made ready to take us to Copenhagen. 

I am assured that my British colleague and the 
Belgian Minister, although they left Berlin after 
I did, traveled by the direct route to Holland. 
I am struck by this difference of treatment, and 
as Denmark and Norway are, at this moment, in- 
fested with spies, if I succeed in embarking in 
Norway, there is danger that I may be arrested 
at sea with the officials who accompany me. 

I do not wish to conclude this dispatch with- 
out notifying your Excellency of the energy and 
devotion of which the whole staff of the Embassy 
has given unceasing proof during the course of 
this crisis. I shall be glad that account should 
be taken of the services which on this occasion 

194 



APPENDICES 

have been rendered to the Government of the 
Republic, in particular by the Secretaries of the 
Embassy and by the Military and Naval At- 
taches. 

Jules Cambon. 



APPENDIX III 

HOW GERMANS ARE WAGING WAR 

The French Government, as soon as it heard of 
the first German atrocities, instituted a Commis- 
sion of inquiry composed of three high French 
magistrates: Mr. Georges Payelle, President of 
the Cour des Comptes, Mr. Georges Maringer, 
Councilor of State, and Mr. Edmond Paillot, 
Councilor of the Cour of Cassation. That Com- 
mission proceeded to the spot where the atrocities 
had been perpetrated and heard witnesses, who de- 
posed under oath. 

Ail evidence and proceedings have been printed 
and fill up ten heavy volumes. 

Among many depositions, the following one, 
taken the twenty-third of October, 1915, at Paris, 
will give an idea of the horrors to which the in- 
vaded regions of France were submitted. 

Duren Virginie, wife of Berard Durem, 29 years 

196 



APPENDICES 

of age, inhabitant of Jarnj in the Department 
of Meurthe et Moselle, a refugee at Levallois- 
Perret : 

I swear to tell the truth and nothing but the 
truth. 

On the S5th of August, 1914, the sixty-sixth 
and sixty-eighth Bavarian regiments were quar- 
tered together at Jarny. I was ordered to bring 

water for the soldiers, so went in search of a 
large number of water pails. At three o'clock in 
the afternoon an officer, who met me, told me I had 
carried enough water and ordered me to go back 
to my house. As the Germans were firing on our 
house with mitrailleuses, I took refuge in the cel- 
lar with my two sons, Jean, aged six, and Maurice, 
aged two, and also my daughter Jeanne, nine 
years of age. The Aufiero family was also there. 
Soon petrol was poured over the house ; it got into 
the cellar through the air-hole, and we were sur- 
rounded by flames. I saved myself, carrying my 
two little boys in my arms, while my daughter 
and little Beatrice Aufiero ran along holding on 
to my skirt. As we were crossing the Rougeval 
brook, which runs near my house, the Bavarians 
fired on us. My little Jean, whom I was carrying, 
was struck by three bullets, one in the right thigh, 

197 



APPENDICES 

one in the ankle, and one in the chest. The thigh 
was almost shot away, and from the place where 
the bullet through his chest came out the lung 
projected. The poor child said, "Oh, Mother, I 
have a pain," and in a moment he was dead. At 
the same time little Beatrice had her arm broken 
so badly that it was attached to her shoulder only 
by a piece of flesh, and Angele Aufiero, a boy of 
nine years, who followed a short distance behind 
us, was wounded in the calf of the leg. Little 
Beatrice suffered cruelly and wept bitterly, but 
she did not fall down, continuing to go along with 
me. 

While these things were taking place, the Perig- 
non family, which lived next door to us, was 
massacred. 

When they were no longer shooting at us, I 
tried to wash my baby, who was covered with 
blood, in the brook; but a soldier prevented me, 
shouting, "Get away from there." 

Finally we got to the road. Meanwhile they 
were driving M. Aufiero out of the cellar. The 
Germans, who spoke French after a fashion, said 
to his wife, "Come see your husband get shot." 
The poor man, on his knees, asked for mercy, and 
as his wife shrieked "My poor Come," the soldiers 
said to her, "Shut your mouth." His execution 
took place very near us. 

198 



APPENDICES 

The Bavarians sent me, my children, Mme. Aufi- 
ero and her daughter to a meadow near the Pont- 
de-PEtang. A general ordered that we be shot, 
but I threw myself at his feet, begging him to be 
merciful. He consented. At this moment an offi- 
cer, wearing a great gray cloak with a red collar, 
said, as he pointed to the dead body of my child, 
"There is one who will not grow up to fight our 
men." 

The next day, in my flight to Barriere Zeller, 
an officer came up and told me that the body of 
my dead child smelled badly and that I must get 
rid of it. Since I could find no one to make a 
coffin, I found in the canteen two rabbit hutches. 
I fastened one of these to the other, and there I 
laid the little body. It was buried in my garden 
by two soldiers, and I had to dig the grave my- 
self. 



APPENDIX IV 

HOW GERMANS OCCUPY THE TERRITORY 
OF AN ENEMY 

In the first days of April, 1916, the following 
notice, bearing the signature of the German com- 
mander, was posted on all the walls of Lille, the 
great town in the north of France which has been 
occupied by the Germans since the beginning of 
the war. 

All the inhabitants of the town, except the chil- 
dren under fourteen years of age, their mothers, 
and the old men, must prepare to be transported 
within an hour and a half. 

An officer will decide definitely which persons 
shall be conducted to the camps of assembly. For 
this purpose, all the inhabitants must assemble 
in front of their homes, in case of bad weather 
they shall be permitted to stay in the lobbies. 
The doors of the houses must be left open. All 

200 



APPENDICES 

complaints will be unavailing. No inhabitant of 
a house, even those who are not to be transported, 
can leave the house before eight o'clock in the 
morning (German time). 

Each person may take thirty kilograms of bag- 
gage with him. Should there be any excess over 
this amount, all that person's baggage will be 
refused regardless of everything. Separate pack- 
ages must be made up by each person, and a visibly 
written, firmly secured address must be on each 
package. The address must bear the person's 
name, surname, and the number of his identifica- 
tion card. 

It is very necessary for each person to provide 
himself with utensils for eating and drinking, also 
with a woolen blanket and some good shoes and 
some linen. Each person must have on his person 
his identification card. Whoever shall attempt to 
evade deportation shall be punished without mercy. 

EtAPPEN KOMMANDANTUX 

The threat contained in the notice cited here 
was carried out to the letter. Here is an account 
of it from the communication addressed by M. 

D , formerly the receveur particulier of Lille, 

to M, Cambon, formerly the French Ambassador 
to Berlin: 

201 



APPENDICES 

On Good Friday night at three o'clock the 
troops who were going to occupy the designated 
section, Fives, came through our houses. It was 
dreadful. An officer passed by, pointing out the 
men and women whom he chose, leaving them a 
space of time amounting to an hour in some cases 
and ten minutes in others, to prepare themselves 
for their journey. 

Antoine D . . . . and his sister, twenty-two years 
of age, were taken away. The Germans did not 
want to leave behind the younger daughter in the 
family, who was not fourteen. Their grand- 
mother, ill with sorrow and terror, had to be cared 
for at once. Finally they met the young daughter 
coming back. In one case an old man and two 
infirm persons could not keep the daughter who 
was their sole support. And everjrwhere the 
enemy sneered, adding vexatious annoyance to 
their hateful task. In the house of the doctor, who 
is B.'s uncle, they gave his wife the choice between 
two maids. She preferred the elder and they said, 
"Well, then she is the one we are going to take." 
Mile. L., the young one who has just got over 
t3^phoid and bronchitis, saw the non-commissioned 
officer who took away her nurse coming up to her. 
"What a sad task they are making us do." "More 
than sad, sir, it could be called barbarous." "That 
is a hard word, are you not afraid that I will sell 

202 



APPENDICES 

you?" As a matter of fact the wretch denounced 
her. They allowed her seven minutes and took her 
away bare-headed, just as she was, to the Colonel 
who commanded this noble battle and who also 
ordered her to go, against the advice of a physi- 
cian. Only on account of her tireless energy and 
the sense of decency of one who was less ferocious 
than the rest, did she obtain permission, at five 
o'clock in the afternoon, to be discharged, after 
a day which had been a veritable Calvary. The 
poor wretches at whose door a sentry watched, 
were collected together at some place or other, a 
Church or a school. Then the mob of all sorts 
and conditions of people, or all grades of social 
standing, respectable young girls and women of 
the street, was driven to the station escorted by 
soldiers marching at the head of the procession. 
From there they were taken oif in the evening 
without knowing where they were going or for 
what work they were destined. 

And in the face of all this our people evidenced 
restraint and admirable dignity, although they 
were provoked that day by seeing the automobiles 
going around which were taking away these un- 
fortunate people. They all went away shouting 
*'Vive la France. Vive la Liberte!" and singing 
the Marseillaise. They cheered up those who re- 
mained ; their poor mothers who were weeping, and 

S03 



APPENDICES 

the children. With voices almost strangled "with 
tears, and pale with suffering, they told them not 
to cry as they themselves would not; but bore 
themselves proudly in the presence of their ex- 
ecutioners. 

Another document shows better than all this 
talking the treatment ' the French have been re- 
ceiving from the Germans for over thirty months. 
This document is a German notice which was 
found at Holnon, northwest of St. Quentin. The 
document bore the official seal of the German com- 
mander. 

Holnon, SOth July, 1915. 

All workmen, women and children over fifteen 
years of age must work in the fields every day, 
also on Sunday, from four o'clock in the morning 
until eight o'clock at night, French time. For 
rest they shall have a half-hour in the morning, an 
hour at noon and a half -hour in the afternoon. 
Failure to obey this order will be punished in the 
following manner: — 

1. — The men who are lazy will be collected for 
the period of the harvest in a company of work- 
men under the inspection of German corporals. 
After the harvest the lazy will be imprisoned for 

204 



APPENDICES 

SIX months and every third day their nourishment 
shall be only bread and water. 

2. — ^Lazy women shall be exiled to Holnon to 
work. After the harvest the women will be im- 
prisoned six months. 

3. — The children who do not work shall be pun- 
ished with blows from a club. 

Furthermore, the commandant reserves the 
right to punish men who do not work with twenty 
blows from a club daily. 

Workmen in the Commune of Verdelles have been 
punished severely. 

(Signed) Glose, 
Colonel and Commandant. 



APPENDIX V 

HOW GERMANS TREAT ALSACE-LORRAINE 

Von Bethmann-Hollweg, Count von Hertling 
and Herr von Kuhlmann state that Alsace-Lor- 
raine is a province of the German Empire by 
right and by fact, and that it is firmly attached 
to Germany. 

The following picture shows how this Germun 
province is treated by Germany: 

Treatment of the Civilian Population 

The Government has established for the dura- 
tion of the war an insurmountable barrier between 
Alsace-Lorraine, which is called a territory of the 
Empire, and the rest of the German states. 
Briefly, Alsace-Lorraine is treated as a suspect. 

An inhabitant of Alsace-Lorraine can not mail 
his letters in Germany. For example, Wissem- 
bourg is on the border of the Palatinate. There 

S06 



APPENDICES 

is a great temptation for the citizens of this town 
to assure a rapid delivery of their letters and their 
escape from annoying censorship by making use 
of the German mail system. A music teacher, 

Mile. Lina Sch was sentenced to pay a fine 

of one hundred marks in March, 1917, for an in- 
fraction of this sort. The war council at Saar- 
bruck, which pronounced this sentence, had al- 
ready, in June, 1916, sentenced for like cause, the 
Spanish Consul, to the payment of a fine of eighty 
marks because he had allowed a citizen of Sarre- 
guimine to have letters to his sons, who were refu- 
gees at Lausanne, addressed to the Spanish Con- 
sulate. 

In addition, German hostility to the Alsatians 
is shown by a number of childish measures against 
x\lsatian uniforms and costumes, in proportion 
as they resemble the French. 

In aU seriousness the question arose of forbid- 
ding the Catholic Clergy to wear the soutane, as 
it was the custom in the Latin countries. It was 
given up; but steps were taken in the case of the 
firemen. 

207 



APPENDICES 

The NouveUe Gazette of Strassburg published 
an official notice, dated the ninth of December, 
1915, which emphasized an order suppressing the 
uniforms worn by the Alsatian firemen because the 
cut was French, as was the cap, and complained 
that this order was not everywhere observed: 

Recently, in the course of a fire which broke out 
near Molsheim, it is an established fact that the 
firemen wore their old Alsatian uniforms, and that 
the fire alarm was sounded by means of the old 
clarions of the type in use in France. The Kreis- 
direction finds itself obliged to insist that the sup- 
pressed uniforms disappear, and that the clarions 
do likewise; and to ask that it be informed of 
contraventions that happen in the future. 

Other societies and associations, such as the 
singing societies which frequently still wear uni- 
forms recalling those of the French collegians, 
ought to lay aside the forbidden garments, which 
are to be entrusted to the guard of the police. 

But these puerilities seem insignificant com- 
pared to other things to which the people of Al- 
sace-Lorraine have been subjected, things which 
unite them more firmly than ever to the French and 
the Belgians of the invaded regions. 

208 



APPENDICES 

The great deportations which have been prac- 
ticed in France and Belgium have been repeated 
in Alsace as recently as January, 1917. The in- 
habitants of Miilhausen between the ages of seven- 
teen and sixty years were assembled in the bar- 
racks at that place, whence they were sent into 
the interior of Germany. 

This proceeding has been practiced on a large 
scale since the war's beginning. Preventive im- 
prisonment, called Schutzhaft, was applied to 
Messin Samain, who was first incarcerated at 
Cologne and then sent to the Russian front, where 
he was killed. It was also applied to M. Bourson, 
former correspondent of Le Matin, who is interned 
at Cannstatt in Wurtemburg. Other citizens, 
after having been held in prison for weeks and 
months, have been exiled finally into Germany. 

The Germans themselves have been so demor- 
alized b}^ the regime they have established that the 
authorities have had to put a check on anonymous 
denunciations, almost all of which were false, by 
an official communique published in the Gazette de 
Hagenau for the sixth of December, 1916. 

209 



APPENDICES 

The story of how the civilian population has 
been treated will only be known in its entirety later 
on. The government has, as a matter of fact, 
forbidden the press to publish accounts of the war 
councils' debates because the population, far from 
being terrified by them, would find in them laugh- 
ing matter. 

It is estimated that the people of Alsace-Lor- 
raine have served in actual hours more than five 
thousand years in prison. Here are some crimes 
committed by them: 

M. Giessmann, an old man seventy years old, 
saluted French prisoners in a Strassburg street: 
Sentence, six weeks in prison. 

Guillaume Kohler, an infantry soldier from 
Saverne, during a journey in Germany, censured 
the inhuman manner in which certain German of- 
ficers treated their men at the front. The council 
at Saarbruck sentenced him to two years in 
prison. 

Emilie Zimmerle, a cook at Kolmar, sang an 
anti-German song as she washed out her pots. 
Thirty marks fine. 

210 



APPENDICES 

Mile. Stem, the daughter of a pastor at Mul- 
house, spoke against the violation of Belgium. 
One month in prison. 

Abbe Theophile Selier, cure at Levencourt, for 
the same offense, six weeks in prison. 

Even children and young girls have been pun- 
ished for peccadillos that were absolutely untrue. 

The Metz Zeitwng for the twenty-second of Oc- 
tober mentions the sentences pronounced against 
"^ Juliette F. de Vigy, eighteen years old, a pupil in 

the commercial school, and Georgette S , 

twenty-three years old, a shop girl, dwellers at 
Mouilly. Having gone one morning to the station 
at Metz, they saw some French prisoners in a 
train to whom they spoke and at whom they "made 
eyes." 

Juliette F , the more guilty of the two, was 

sentenced to pay a fine of eighty marks, and 

Georgette S to pay one of forty marks, 

because "acting this way to prisoners of war exer- 
cises a particularly disturbing effect on them." 

Two little girls of Kolmar, named Grass and 

211 



APPENDICES 

Broly, were arrested for "having answered, by 
waving their hands, kisses French prisoners threw 
to them." 

A boy fifteen years old, pupil in the upper 
school at Mulhouse, named Jean Ingold, who, in 
the classroom tore down the portrait of the Em- 
peror and painted French flags on the wall with 
the inscription "Vive la France," was condemned 
to a month in prison. The War Council saw an 
aggravating circumstance in the fact that Jean's 
father "occupies a very lucrative position as a 
German functionary." 

On the thirtieth of March, 1916, two sisters 
from Guebwiller — Sister Edwina, nee Bach, 
Mother Superior, and Sister Emertine, nee Eck- 
ert, were charged with anti-German manifestations 
for having treated as lies the figures regarding 
French and Russian prisoners sent out in the 
German communiques, for having protested 
against the bombardment of Rheims Cathedral, 
for having treated as false the German victories 
that had been announced, and for having said on 
the subject of the German invasion of Belgium, 

212 



APPENDICES 

"How can they attack a country that asked for 
nothing?'* 

The result was that they got six months' im- 
prisonment. 

The case of Mme. Berthe Judlin, in the faith Sis- 
ter Valentine, is more tragic. 

The Mulhouse newspapers have published the 
account of the proceedings in the case of this 
Sister before the War Council. It appears that 
she has been the victim of monstrous calumnies, 
and that her fate can well be compared to that of 
Miss Edith Cavell. 

She was accused of having, from the ninth to 
the fourteenth of August when she was assigned 
to the convent of the Redemptorists at Riedi- 
shiem, favored the French wounded at the expense 
of the German wounded. These accusations, which 
specified in particular, that she had taken vari- 
ous objects away from one wounded man (a 
charge the prosecution withdrew) and that she hid 
the cartridges of the French wounded in the 
attic, were contested by Sister Valentine. After 
the testimony of the witnesses, nine for the prose- 

213 



APPENDICES 

cution and fourteen for the defendant, the govern- 
ment commissioner asked that she be punished 
with a sentence of fifteen years at hard labor and 
ten years of deprivation of civil rights. Her 
lawyer asked for her acquittal. The War Coun- 
cil on the fourteenth of December, 1915, after an 
hour and a quarter's deliberation, decided that 
"Sister Valentine has done harm to the German 
Army" and has hidden the cartridges. It con- 
demned Sister Valentine to "five years of hard 
labor and five years' deprivation of civil rights." 

The War on the French Langtuige 

The Germans never cease recalling and von 
Hertling has just repeated the fact that eighty- 
seven per cent of the Alsatians speak Grerman. It 
is strange, then, that the German reign of terror 
has manifested itself in one particular against the 
use of French, even in the region where French is 
the language universally spoken. 

The fact that a person speaks French has be- 
come a special oiFense, that of "provocation." 

S14« 



APPENDICES 

And this offense appears to be a frequent one. 
On the twenty-second of February, 1916, the 
sous-prefect of Boulay gave the following warning 
to the mayors of his arrondissement: 

The use in public of French will be considered 
a "provocation" when used by persons who know 
enough German to make themselves understood or 
who can have recourse to persons who understand 
German as intermediaries. 

The War Council Extraordinary at Metz, in 
consequence handed down a decision condemning 
two women to fourteen days in prison because, in 
a manner that gave "provocation," they spoke 
French in a trolley car in spite of the warnings 
of the conductress. 

In addition, the War Council Extraordinary at 
Strassburg fined a salesman who "not only let a 
French label remain on his packages, but had 
put a French label on a package addressed to a 
customer who understood German." 

A little girl from Bourg-Bruche who, although 
she spoke German, used the French language in 

215 



APPENDICES 

spite of repeated warnings, had a sentence of 
detention inflicted on her by the same tribunal. 

The Mulhouse Tageblatt for the twenty-third 
of September, 1917, announced that women who 
had conversed to one another in French in public 
had been condemned to from two to three weeks 
imprisonment by the War Council at Thionville. 

Another person who had made a usage of the 
French language that gave grounds for "provo- 
cation," was condemned to pay a fine of fifty marks 
or serve ten days in prison. 

The Oherelsaessische Landeszeitung for the 
twelfth and twenty-sixth of October published the 
following sentences: "Fines of twenty and ten 
marks to the venders A. Nemarg and M. Cahen 
for having spoken to a convoy of French officers 
in the station at Thionville." 

Twenty and thirty marks fine to Amelie Bany 
and Catherine Jacques of Knutange "for having 
spoken French although they understood Ger- 
man." 

The Mayor of Broque, a commune where French 
is spoken, was sentenced to three months' im- 

216 



APPENDICES 

prisonment for having spoken French to his coun- 
cilors. 

In Alsace this campaign against the French 
language is carried even into the girls' boarding 
schools, which have always been the principal 
centers for the study of French. 

An order from the Statthalter, dated March 
tenth, 1915, forbade French conversations in the 
schools. 

A German pastor of the Lutheran Church 
named Curtius, who had opposed suppressing the 
old parish of Saint Nicholas at Strassburg, was 
removed. His successor, who was better disci- 
plined, gave in to the measure that was demanded. 

The war against the French language has been 
marked by the suppression of all French news- 
papers since the war's beginning, the Journal 
d* Alsace-Lorraine, the Messin, the NouveUiste d*- 
Alsace-Lorravrw. But nothing shows better the 
necessity of having organs of public opinion in 
French than the establishment at Metz of the 
Gazette d' Alsace-Lorrame by the government, 
which served as a model for the Gazette des Ar- 

217 



APPENDICES 

dennesy founded later on at Mezieres, to demoral- 
ize the inhabitants of the invaded districts in the 
north and west of France. 

The Treatment of the Soldiers from Alsace- 
Lorraine 

The soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine, whose loyal- 
ty was proclaimed at the war's beginning, have, as 
a matter of fact, been treated like spies and em- 
bryo deserters. 

In August, 1915, at the opening of the Alsa- 
tian parliament, the Statthalter denounced the 
anti-patriotism of a part of the population and 
stigmatized the "traitors" who had "gone over 
to the enemy." 

In fact, no less than fourteen thousand Alsa- 
tians, in the face of manifold perils and difficulties, 
had rejoined the colors of their true country. 
All the newspapers of Alsace-Lorraine stiU pub- 
lish the lists of them as citizens and of their be- 
longings as "refractory individuals." 

The movement has never stopped. During the 
thirty-second month of the war, on the fourteenth 

218 



APPENDICES 

of March, 1917, General von Nassner, command- 
ant for the district of Saarbnick, published the 
following extraordinary order: 

"Whoever, after due examination, has reason 
to believe that a soldier or a man on reprieve pro- 
poses to desert and who can still prevent the 
execution of this crime, must without delay give 
notice of this fact to the nearest military or police 
authority." 

The Strassburg Newest e N achrichten for the 
twenty-seventh of September announced that the 
"chambre correstionnelle at Kolmar had con- 
demned by default one hundred and ninety men 
from the arrondissements of Guebwiller and Rib- 
eauviUe to fines of six hundred marks or forty 
days in prison for having failed to perform their 
military obligations." 

The Oherelsaessische Landeszeitvmg for the 
eleventh of October, 1917, announced sentences of 
fines of three thousand marks or three hundred 
days in prison for the same reason against seven 
persons. 

The Haguenauer Zeitvmg from the eleventh to 

219 



APPENDICES 

the twentieth of October published the names of 
seventeen soldiers, some of them deserters, the 
others guilty of rebellion in favor of the enemy 
or of treason. 

On the twenty-fifth of October there was an- 
other list of deserters, nineteen of whom were na- 
tives of Strassburg. 

In his book, "The Martyrs of Alsace and Lor- 
raine," M. Andre Fribourg has fifteen pages taken 
from the lists of the debates of the German war 
councils. These pages are made up of the names 
of young Alsatians who have left their country 
rather than fight against France. 

Besides, far from treating the Alsatians en- 
rolled in the German Army like Germans, the 
government has accorded them a distinctly differ- 
ent treatment. 

It has sent them to the Russian front and em- 
ployed them at the most dangerous posts, as this 
secret order, from the Prussian Minister of War 
to the temporary commander of the Fourteenth 
Army Corps, proves: 

S20 



APPENDICES 

All men from Alsace-Lorraine employed as 
secretaries, ordnance officers, etc., must be relieved 
of their duties and sent to the battle front. In 
the future, all the men from Alsace-Lorraine will 
be sent to the "General Kommando," who will 
send them at once to the units on the Eastern 
Front. This order to go into effect before the first 
of April, 1916. 

For the Stellvert, General Kommando 
Radecke, Major. 

Finally, it was only on the ninth of October, 
1917, that the Strassburg Neu-e Zeitung announced 
the abolition of the special postal control to which 
the soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine were submitted 
at the front. 

It is but just [says the Freie Presse on that 
occasion] that the exceptional measures taken 
against the soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine be 
abolished at last. Among these measures we con- 
sider the interdiction still in force for a man to 
return to his native town. And [the same news- 
paper adds] from the moment that the bravery 
of our soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine is vaunted 
everywhere, it is absolutely wrong to reward them 
with scorn and insults. 

221 



APPENDICES 

In the notice from G. Q. G. for the twenty-fifth 
of November, 1917, are the details gathered from 
the Alsatian prisoners themselves of the treat- 
ment their compatriots endure in the German 
Army. 

On the twenty-second of last June, all the Al- 
satians received orders to present themselves at 
the F. R. D. of their division, where they were 
received by the Vize Sergeant, flanked by two 
guards. 

The former said to them: 

"What ! You have not yet laid aside your ac- 
coutrements; traitors, deserters, scoundrels, ras- 
cals. Get into the shelter quick where you can put 
up nine additional supports for the roof and 
where you can kick the bucket at your ease." 

Since some of the Alsatians declared that, hav- 
ing received nothing to eat or to drink, they could 
not work, a lieutenant, who was summoned by the 
adjutant, ran up with his riding whip and, making 
one of them step forward, beat him until he lost 
consciousness. 

Later on another lieutenant ordered the Vize 

222 



APPENDICES 

Sergeant to "train the Alsatians well. They are 
all robbers and traitors." 

All these facts proclaim in an undeniable man- 
ner that the soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine are not 
treated like ordinary citizens by the Grerman 
Army, but like foreigners temporarily under the 
domination of Germany. 

The Sequestration of Property 

For a "German" country, Alsace-Lorraine 
seems to have a great number of landowners who 
are French, if one is to judge by the sequestra- 
tions and confiscations with which the authorities 
have been so desperately busy for three years. 

In fact the local newspapers contain lists of 
sequestrations that are almost as long as the 
lists of deserters. 

And these confiscations apply not only to the 
landowners who live in France. A large number 
have been pronounced against inhabitants of 
Alsace-Lorraine who live abroad. Orders were 
given them to reenter the German Empire, orders 
they had no possible chance of obeying, but which 

223 



APPENDICES 

gave the imperial government an easy pretext for 
pronouncing their denationalization and the con- 
fiscation of their property. 

Also, the sequestrations followed by sales un- 
der the hammer, of French and Alsatian proper- 
ties were extremely numerous. Among these prop- 
erties there are a certain number of considerable 
importance. 

On the twenty-fourth of August, 1916, Les 
Dernieres NouveUes de Strasbourg, advertised the 
sale under the hammer of the properties of Prince 
de Tonnay-Charente, situated at Hambourg and 
consisting of a splendid chateau, furnished in 
Louis Fourteenth style. Gobelin tapestries of great 
value, family portraits, green houses, outhouses, 
ponds, farms, etc., etc. 

The Strassburg Post for the twenty-ninth of 
October announced the liquidation sale of Cite 
Hof, belonging to the heirs of Paul de Greiger, 
including "forty-two hectares of fine arable land, 
fine dwelling houses, barns and stables, a very fine 
park, summer houses, a coach house, etc." . . . 
"of the Villa Huber, with a fine park, servants' 



APPENDICES 

quarters, garden, surrounded by twenty-eight hec- 
tares of fields." 

The same paper for the fourth of October an- 
nounces the sale of the famous chateau of Robert- 
sau, the property of Mme. Loys-Chandieu, nee 
Pourtales, with two hundred and thirty hectares 
of farm land and one hundred and thirty hectares 
of forest. 

The Metzer Zeitung for the twentieth of Oc- 
tober announced the liquidation of twenty prop- 
erties in the Moyeuvre Grande district, and of 
eleven in that of Sierek. 

Many people have obviously been covetous of 
these French possessions. 

On this subject curious letters and unceasing 
polemics appeared in the Alsatian newspapers. 

Certain interested persons complained {S trass- 
burger Post for the third of November) that the 
time was so short that only the inhabitants of the 
country and their immediate neighbors had any 
opportunity of profiting by these occasions. They 
remarked with all justice that to get the highest 

2S5 



APPENDICES 

prices for these sales there ought to be a large 
number of bidders. 

For the farm lands, the neighbors would suffice 
to bring up the bids to a high enough sum, but 
when it was a matter of a magnificent chateau, 
like that at Osthofen, with a garden and a park, 
bidders for this luxury would scarcely be found 
among the peasants. The speculators alone would 
step in and would acquire for a mere nothing 
properties of great value. And the plaintiffs 
added, "Is that desirable?" 

The following considerations advanced by one 
of the plaintiffs are not without interest. "Suf- 
ficient means of communication still remain be- 
tween France and Germany. Do you not see the 
danger of feigned sales, to third persons, who 
will buy in the goods at small cost and will hand 
them over later on to their former proprietors.'' 
In this way the French influence over the owner- 
ship of the land wiU be reestablished in the fu- 
ture." 

To these complaints and wi'ongs the Strass- 

226 



APPENDICES 

burger Post for the eighth of November replied 
in detail. 

It assured that the list of goods to be disposed 
of had not only been placed by the authorities in 
the several states of the empire, to give buyers 
time to take advantage of possible bargains, but 
also a catalogue of stationary objects had been 
published in fifteen hundred copies by Schultz 
& Co. of Strassburg. 

This catalogue was quickly used up and the 
demand for it continued to come in, which proved 
that the buyers were informed in time. 

The newspaper adds that the things to be sold 
have been visited by buyers coming from old Ger- 
many as well as from Alsace-Lorraine, and sales 
propositions have been made before the publica- 
tion of notices in the newspapers. 

It seems, furthermore, that if the sales of land 
and the exploitation of farm lands have ended 
rapidly, it was because colonization societies, 
called "black bands," have overtly bought up or 
had bought up the properties by their agents, in 
the hope that their plans would be realized after 

227 



APPENDICES 

the war. In industrial matters, there was recently 
founded in Berlin a Grerman syndicate which pro- 
poses to buy up the actions. 

For the textile industry in particular, it is a 
question of a veritable trust against which is ar- 
rayed "a syndicate of Alsatian manufacturers 
who have felt the need of defending themselves.'* 

The entire scope of recent German policies with 
regard to Alsace-Lorraine shows that this land 
which von Hertling said was "allied to German- 
ism by more and more intimate bonds" has been, 
as a matter of fact, to treat it like a foreign land, 
kept by force under imperial domination and 
submitted, like the occupied portions of France 
and Belgium, to a veritable reign of terror. 



APPENDIX VI 

GERMANS UNDERSTAND FUTURE PEACE 

If an account is desired of the manner in which 
the Germans understand a future peace, this let- 
ter suffices. It was addressed to the Berliner 
Lokalanzeiger by Herr Walter Rathenau. He was 
in charge of the direction of all industrial estab- 
lishments in Germany : 

We commenced war a year too soon. When we 
shall have obtained a German peace, reorganiza- 
tion on a broader and more solid basis than ever 
before must commence immediately. The estab- 
lishments which produce raw materials must not 
only continue their work, but they must also re- 
double their energies and thus form the founda- 
tion of Germany's economical preparation for the 
next war. 

On the lessons taught by actual war we must 



APPENDICES 

figure out carefully what our country lacks in 
raw materials and accumulate great stores of 
these which shall never be utilized until Der Tag 
of the future. We must organize the industrial 
mobilization as perfectly as the military mobili- 
zation. Every man of technical training or par- 
tial technical training, whether or not he is en- 
rolled in the list of men who can be mobilized, 
must have received authority by official order to 
take over the direction of industrial establish- 
ments on the second day which shall follow the 
next declaration of war. 

Every establishment which manufactures for 
commercial purposes ought to be mobilized and to 
know officially that the third day after the declara- 
tion of war it must make use of all its facilities in 
satisfying the needs of the Army. 

The quantity of merchandise which each one of 
these establishments can furnish to the Army in 
a given time and the nature thereof ought to be 
determined in advance. Every establishment also 
ought to furnish an exact and complete list of 
the workmen with whose services it can dispense, 
and those men alone can be mobilized for military 
services. 

Finally commercial arrangements will be made 
necessary with nations outside Europe through 
which we will give them sufficient advantages, 
specified in detail, so that it would be directly 

230 



APPENDICES 

advantageous to their commercial interests to 
carry on commerce with none of the belligerents 
and not to sell them munitions. 

We can accept such obligations for ourselves 
without any fear and finally, when the next war 
shall corae, it cannot come a year too soon. 



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